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THE JEW THROUGH 
THE CENTURIES 








































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THE JEW THROUGH 
THE CENTURIES 

' J 

By HERBERT L. f WILLETT ' 

^ n 


Willett, Clark and Company 

Chicago: 440 South Dearborn Street 
New York: zoo Fifth Avenue 














Copyright 193Z by 
WILLETT, CLARK & COMPANY 


Manufactured in The U. S. A. by The Plimpton Press 
Norwood, Mass.-LaPorte, Ind. 


X>Su7 

.V/5 



SEP 19 i932 


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©C1A 54878 










CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION . I 
I . PALESTINE . 23 
II . HEBREW ORIGINS . 7 1 

III . HEBREW CONTACTS, ACCRETIONS AND DISPERSIONS . 87 
IV . FALL OF JUDAH: CLOSE OF HEBREW HISTORY . IO4 
V . THE RISE OF JUDAISM . I32 
VI . PRIESTHOOD AND GENEALOGIES . 1 66 
VII . THE GROWTH OF JUDAISM . 189 
VIII . JEW AND CHRISTIAN . 224 
IX . THE END OF THE JEWISH STATE . 258 
X . THE JEW THROUGH THE CENTURIES . 279 
XI . THE RISE OF ZIONISM . 314 
XII . JEW AND ARAB IN PALESTINE . 344 
XIII . THE JEW TODAY AND TOMORROW . 382 


BIBLIOGRAPHY . 407 
INDEXES . 415 























THE JEW THROUGH 
THE CENTURIES 







INTRODUCTION 


One of the most interesting racial groups known to 
history is the Jewish people. They have been rightly called 
“ the Burning Bush ” of the centuries, ever burning, yet never 
consumed. Without a country, yet citizens of all lands; un¬ 
happy and undesired wherever they have gone, yet contribut¬ 
ing everywhere to the welfare and prosperity of their adopted 
homes, they have been the migrant race beyond all others, 
the veritable “ wandering Jews.” For almost two and a half 
millenniums they have exhibited to the world the strange 
paradox of the utmost variety of experiences, distribution, 
speech, customs, complexion and social strata, and at the 
same time a singular coherence in racial sentiment and re¬ 
ligious conviction. In their ranks they have included states¬ 
men and councillors, all the way from Nehemiah to Disraeli, 
philosophers from the son of Sirach to Spinoza, scientists 
from Maimonides to Einstein, and philanthropists from 
Baron Hirsch to Nathan Straus and Julius Rosenwald. 

They have furnished the world many of its merchant 
princes, its masters of commerce and its barons of the bank¬ 
ing profession. In strange contrast among them are to be 
found in all ages the most desperately poor, pickers of rags, 
collectors and sellers of old bottles, and multitudes living on 
the fringes of the social order. No people has ever been at 
the same time so powerful and so disesteemed. Certain per¬ 
sistent racial traits have set the Jew apart as clever, resource¬ 
ful, successful, pushful and clannish, and therefore as unde- 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


sirable as a neighbor and unwelcome as an immigrant. Most 
of these characteristics are the result, not of his religion, as 
is often mistakenly affirmed, but of the unhappy race preju¬ 
dice resulting from the very qualities which have made him 
successful in competition with less energetic peoples. 

The Jews have been the children of sorrow, the product 
of dispersion on the one side, and of the ghetto and the pale 
on the other. They have been subjected to every type of op¬ 
pression, persecution, outrage and spoliation. They have 
been hunted out of the lands where they thought they had 
found a home, forbidden callings open to other people, shut 
up in precincts which were both a refuge and a prison, tor¬ 
tured for their money or because of their faith, and com¬ 
pelled by the enginery of churchly persecution to abjure 
their religion and conform to a creed they abhorred. Their 
numbers have suffered depletion in every period of their 
history, from massacre, from desertion due to the hardships 
to which they were subjected, from silent withdrawal to the 
protection of other social groups, and from constant though 
never approved intermarriage with non-Jewish families. 
Had it not been for these depletions, the Jews might well 
form today one of the most numerous sections of the world’s 
population, rather than the comparatively small company 
they include. Furthermore, in spite of their limited num¬ 
bers and their coherence, they exhibit the most diverse racial 
types, the result of the constant intermixture of blood, dis¬ 
persion into all parts of the world, and subjection to every 
form of oppression and violence. 

This interesting and historic people came into being in 
Palestine in the fifth century b.c. It was the result of the 


— 2 — 




Introduction 


heroic efforts of two men of the Hebrew race to rehabilitate 
the ancient capital of their fathers, then in desolation. Suc¬ 
cessive dispersions had brought the older Hebrew nationali¬ 
ties to their end. A mixed race from their beginnings, they 
had organized the kingdom of Israel under David and Solo¬ 
mon, a kingdom that was broken asunder at the time of the 
revolt of the ten tribes in 937 b.c. The two resulting frag¬ 
ments continued their career, Israel until 721, when it was 
washed out by Assyria, and Judah until 586, when Jerusa¬ 
lem fell under Babylonian assaults, and the little area was 
reduced to ruin. The least resourceful of the inhabitants 
lingered in the province. Most departed, either as expatri¬ 
ates to Babylonia, or as refugees to Egypt and other neigh¬ 
boring lands. 

Judah was left prostrate and desolate. The picture pre¬ 
sented by Ezekiel, himself a witness, is sufficiently de¬ 
pressing. It was the hope of the best of the race, like that 
prophet and the Second Isaiah, that there might be a return 
of the people or their children from the east, and a restora¬ 
tion of Jerusalem. Of this hope there was no realization. 
The story of the “ return,” so called, if the testimony of the 
contemporary sources can be trusted, was a myth, the result 
of later Jewish effort to connect the new Jewish community 
with the historic Israel. With the downfall of Babylonia and 
the coming of the Persian rule an attempt was made by 
some of the remnant in Judah, led by Haggai and Zechariah 
the courageous prophets, with whatever help certain pilgrims 
from the east such as Zerubbabel and the priest Joshua could 
offer. A new temple was begun on the ruins of the old, but 
it was disappointingly small, and it took years to complete it, 


— 3 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


meagre as it was. The colony was small, feeble and dis¬ 
couraged. The later glimpse afforded by the anonymous 
fragment called Malachi is still more depressing, and refer¬ 
ences in the Psalms indicate that fresh tragedies befell the 
city and its vicinity. The ancient Hebrew people was no 
more. Groups here and there in the east and in Egypt cher¬ 
ished the classic writings and tried to observe the Deutero- 
nomic law. But with rare exceptions the Hebrews had been 
absorbed into the nations around them, and the only heritage 
left was the body of scriptures that had thus far taken form, 
and the memory of the great prophetic ministries of the past. 

It was in the year 445 b.c., the twentieth of Artaxerxes I 
of Persia, that a delegation of men from Judah waited on 
Nehemiah, a chamberlain and confident of the Persian king 
at Susa, and presented to him the lamentable story of Jerusa¬ 
lem in ruins, the temple destroyed, the population small, 
conglomerate and in great distress, and the candle of Israel 
all but completely quenched. Stirred by this pathetic re¬ 
cital, Nehemiah secured leave of absence from the king and, 
accompanied by a military guard and bearing credentials of 
his mission, made the long journey to Jerusalem and took 
up the difficult work of governor of the province. His Jour¬ 
nal, which forms the nucleus of the book that bears his name, 
gives the record of his achievements during the next dozen or 
more years, including the rebuilding of the city walls, the 
organization of the administration, the institution of re¬ 
forms among the mixed and uninstructed people of the city, 
now taking on new life, and some effort to preserve the small 
remnant of Hebrew stock from intermarriage with the other 
peoples represented in the population. Though the stock of 


“4 — 




Introduction 


Israel had been swept away by repeated invasion, deportation 
and massacre, the memories of the past remained, and the 
sacred writings that had taken form were cherished and held 
in reverence by at least a fragment of the citizenship. It was 
the effort of the devoted and heroic governor to salvage 
something if possible of the older life of Palestine as the 
basis for the new community. 

A few years later, in 397 b.c., the seventh of Artaxerxes 
II, there arrived in the city the man to whom the Jewish 
people and Judaism owed more than to any other as founder 
and fashioner. This was Ezra the scribe, who brought with 
him from Babylonia that expansion of the laws of Deuter¬ 
onomy and Ezekiel which is usually known as the Priest 
Code. It was apparently the work of a circle of Hebrews 
in the east, who believed that the revival of the national for¬ 
tunes, shattered by successive shocks of war and expatriation, 
depended upon the acceptance and strict observance of a 
body of laws far more exacting and priestly than those the 
lost Hebrew state had known. This code, with its elaborate 
priestly ritual and its minute and specific rules of the sanctu¬ 
ary, was brought by the eager and ardent reformer, who took 
up at once the task of bringing the people of the province to 
a more satisfactory moral and religious estate. 

Conditions were far worse than he could have imagined. 
The population was of the most mixed and nondescript char¬ 
acter. It included people of all the neighboring races, who 
had freely intermarried, producing a composite group that 
spoke a patois far removed from the speech of Judah in the 
old days. Even the men who claimed to be of priestly and 
Levitical blood had ignored if they had ever known the 


—5 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


prescribed limitations of their caste. Things could hardly 
be worse. Ezra at once instituted measures of the most dras¬ 
tic sort to correct these abuses. The guilty officials were com¬ 
pelled to swear to send away the foreign wives and their 
children, though it might be difficult to tell who was for¬ 
eign and who was native in such a complex company. Of 
course nothing came of it. It was impossible to enforce such 
an unsocial edict. The account appears to be the work of an 
author writing at a much later time in the interest of racial 
purity and legal exactness. In reality neither the Hebrews 
of the classic age nor the Jews of the later time were ever 
of untainted blood. The Old Testament is the authentic 
narrative of such frequent invasions, infiltrations, subjuga¬ 
tions, intermixtures and alliances as rendered incredible any 
idea of a segregated racial stock among the Hebrews. And 
with beginnings so miscellaneous, and a succession of per¬ 
meations, removals and later dispersions into every part of 
the world, accompanied by cruel treatment, outrages, ravish¬ 
ment and oppression of unimaginable forms, the claim of 
unsullied stock can hardly be made for the Jew of modern 
times, or of any of the historic periods since the days of 
Ezra, the founder of the race. 

It is continuity of land inheritance, unbroken linguistic 
tradition, and measurably peaceful political experience that 
can validate the title to legitimate clan inheritance and racial 
continuity. Few groups in the mingled population of the 
western world can make that assertion today. The modern 
Italian is a far cry from the Roman of the classic day in spite 
of Mussolini’s doctrine of nationalism. The Greek of today 
is far nearer in racial traits, speech and manners to the Al- 

— 6 — 




Introduction 


banian and the Turk than to the Greek of the age of Pericles. 
And the Jew of the present generation has few of the cre¬ 
dentials of continuity belonging even to these races. His 
persistence is due to his faith in his religion, built like the 
Christian confession upon the foundations of the Old Testa¬ 
ment, to his intense monotheism, to the disciplines of his 
ritual observances which have been a protection, a shell of 
conformity through the centuries, and perhaps chiefly to the 
persecutions he has suffered, whose effects are disclosed in his 
psychology, his mannerisms, his speech and his type of cul¬ 
ture. In fact most of his peculiarities, aside from his basic 
faith in the one God, which he shares with Christian and 
Moslem, are defense mechanisms, to which he was in large 
measure forced by the cruelties and exactions of an unsocial 
environment. He has adopted, wherever possible, the 
strategy and technique of the people among whom he has 
lived. He has taken over their names as a means of disguise 
until there are few Jews today who do not bear German, 
Polish, Russian, French, Spanish or English names. In 
innumerable instances by intermarriage or the adoption of 
another creed he has sought to escape persecution or social 
ostracism. History presents the pathetic spectacle of this 
gifted and serviceable people attempting in all periods and 
lands to evade the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 
chiefly the result of Christian race prejudice and brutality. 

There was no authentic connection of any class of the 
citizenship of Judah with the past. The repeated destruction 
of Jerusalem and its archives not only explains the loss of 
those many biographical and historical documents cited so 
frequently and so tantalizingly in the Old Testament, but 


—7 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 

discounts completely the supposition that there could have 
been preserved the genealogies of the priesthood, of the tribe 
of Levi, or in fact of any other tribe. Yet these fictions per¬ 
sisted, and it is not surprising that claims were made by tal- 
mudic writers, in the spirit of the Chronicler, that every Jew, 
much more every priest, could trace his line back to his tribal 
ancestor. In fact there continued through the centuries, 
and prevails even to the present time among some Jews, the 
belief that tribal groups were preserved intact, and that an 
individual could claim descent from a designated tribal unit. 
It is asserted in the Talmud that there were eighteen camel¬ 
loads of exposition of one of the genealogical lists in Chroni¬ 
cles. But Josephus, who claimed for himself a priestly de¬ 
scent, writes that at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus all 
the priestly records were consumed. 

The Jewish community in Jerusalem in the fourth cen¬ 
tury b.c. was in no way a continuation of the Hebrew state 
of the days of David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Zerubbabel and 
Zechariah, but was a new community organized by the 
heroic efforts of the two leaders, Nehemiah and Ezra, and 
was made up of a variety of racial elements from the near-by 
regions, in which amalgam the Edomites were probably the 
largest factor, and in which the surviving Hebrews, either 
those remaining in the province or those who came from 
abroad, were a weak minority. But however complex was 
the group, and however tenuous its connection with the 
Hebrew past, the men who were the leaders had, in spite of 
seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the courage and en¬ 
thusiasm to mold the unpromising material into a coherent 
and hardy community on the only pattern that could have 

—8 — 








Introduction 


survived, that of a company of mixed stock, and therefore 
all the more vital and efficient as such stocks have always 
proved, organized as a religious and not a political unit, and 
capable therefore of enduring hardship in the interest of 
their new law and their priestly cultus. 

Of the years that followed there is no constructive rec¬ 
ord. The Samaritan community at Shechem was evidently 
denied any participation in the Jewish enterprise, and must 
have constructed its temple on Mt. Gerizim as a token of 
the distinct break with Judaism. At the same time the 
Torah, the five books of Moses, became the sacred scriptures 
of this group, and has continued to hold that place to this 
day. In the matter of zeal for the law and purity of race 
the Samaritans have claimed superiority to the Jews, whom 
they regard as apostates from the faith of the Hebrew 
fathers. The friction between the two communities was 
more or less constant, the Jews reacting with bitterness to the 
disdain of the Samaritans. Probably a good deal of blood 
was shed across the border. One can discern the sentiment 
of the Jews in the pages of the New Testament, which was 
the natural expression of their resentment at the charge 
that they were a mixed and upstart race, with no claim to 
the sanctions of the Hebrew institutions. 

Somewhere in this period there are hints of fresh trage¬ 
dies that befell Jerusalem, probably in the reign of Arta- 
xerxes III, Ochus. Hints supplied by some of the Psalms and 
the late sections of Isaiah and Zechariah throw a lurid light 
upon the unhappy estate of the faithful in Judah, whose 
misfortunes were heightened by the conduct of apostates as 
well as the cruelties of enemies. In such periods of suffering 


—9 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


and in connection with such events are to be discovered the 
beginnings of the apocalyptic spirit, which, now that proph¬ 
ecy had ceased, became an increasingly useful medium of 
religious instruction and national encouragement. Some¬ 
thing of this spirit is seen in the book of Joel, whose author, 
like many of his fellow religionists, thought of a dispersed 
but interested Judaism among the nations, which might be 
expected to return to Zion and assist in its enlargement and 
enrichment. Some such arriving pilgrims there were from 
time to time, but their numbers were few, and their help 
negligible. 

There were two contrasted views in the Jewish com¬ 
munity regarding its relation to the outside world. Em¬ 
phasizing as it did the idea that it was the successor and 
legatee of the Hebrew commonwealth, it was possible to fol¬ 
low the nationalistic leadership of Ezekiel, to whom Israel 
was the all-important consideration, and its priestly future 
the object of solicitude and hope, or to accept the broader 
view of the Second Isaiah, to whom Israel was not an end 
in itself, but the divinely appointed means of bringing salva¬ 
tion to the nations. In the Jerusalem of the fourth and 
third centuries there were already advocates of each of these 
points of view. 

During all periods of Hebrew history contact with Egypt 
had been constant, and communities had grown up there 
that were more or less in contact with the two kingdoms 
of the north and, after their disappearance, with the new 
Jewish organization in Jerusalem. Refugees had sought an 
asylum in the land of the Nile, as the closing chapter in 
the life of Jeremiah shows, and papyrus records from the 


— io — 




Introduction 


island of Elephantine near Assouan show that there was a 
Hebrew colony located there in the twenty-sixth dynasty, 
about the time that Nehemiah was erecting the walls of 
Jerusalem. In the years that followed this migration of 
Jews from Judah to Egypt continued, due partly to trading 
opportunities, partly to the greater security offered there, 
and partly to the chance for military service, which as we 
know took some of them as far as Nubia. These emigrants 
from Palestine were probably of the same mixed type as the 
population of Jerusalem, though their opportunities for seg¬ 
regation were perhaps superior to those of the people of 
Judah. The colony at Elephantine mingled its worship of 
Ya’u or Jahveh with offerings to other deities. 

The meteoric career of Alexander the Great changed the 
face of the world and affected the Jewish community as it 
did all others from the Aegean to the Indus. The Persian 
power was washed out of Palestine, and the country found 
itself the unhappy buffer state between the two Greek do¬ 
minions of Syria on the north and Egypt on the south. The 
campaigns of Alexander were hardly more than triumphal 
advances through the vast east, and his empire soon fell to 
pieces. But he left over the wide areas of his dominion the 
imperishable influence of the Greek language and culture. 
His warriors who were scattered along the highways of Asia 
Minor, Syria, Persia and India became the interpreters and 
propagandists of Hellenic speech and ideas. Presently the 
Greek civilization was the dominant force from Egypt to the 
Aegean, and was even extending into the near east. Between 
the two capitals — Antioch and Alexandria — lay Palestine, 
in which the growing Jerusalem had come to possess increas- 


— ii — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


ing control. The stage was thus set for the four-fold drama 
which through the following centuries brought the Jews 
into the light of world recognition in four thrilling acts. 
These were the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into 
Greek, the Maccabean revolution, the rise of Christianity 
and the Roman war. These events put the Jew on the map 
and made him a subject of interest in the entire Graeco- 
Roman world. 

Syria and Egypt were Greek in their culture and re¬ 
ligion. Naturally this .influence spread through the entire 
area. Greek speech, Greek manners, Greek amusements 
and the Greek cultus became increasingly popular. Hebrew 
had already given way to Aramaic as the lingua franca of 
Palestine, and now Greek was rapidly taking its place. The 
large Jewish population of Alexandria desired a version of 
the Hebrew scriptures in a language they could read, and 
in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 250 b.c., some of 
their scholars set about the task of making a translation. 
This work was not completed for a century or more, but 
it gave to the cultural world of the time some knowledge of 
a literature which up to this time had held but a small place 
in the regard of any save the later Hebrews and the Jews. It 
was called the Septuagint, or the Seventy (LXX). It was 
also the Bible of the New Testament church. 

The Maccabean revolution was an uprising of the more 
conservative elements in the population of Judah against the 
increasing spread of Greek ideas among them. So popular 
had the Hellenic fashions and customs become that Jewish 
youths were adopting the dress and manners of the pagan 
world about them. Gymnasia and baths were erected in 


— 12 — 





Introduction 


Jerusalem, the Hermes cap was the common style, Greek de¬ 
bating societies were fostered, and there were sinister tokens 
of a complete abandonment of the law and the temple 
service. Perhaps if matters had been left to their rapidly 
moving course Judaism would have perished in its own 
home. It was the attempt of the Syrian king, Antiochus IV, 
Epiphanes, to complete this process by forcible means which 
roused the faithful and saved the structure Ezra had reared. 
Mattathias Hasmon, belonging to one of the minor priestly 
families, and living in the town of Modern on the shephela, 
raised the standard of revolt against Syria in 167 b.c. In the 
following years his son Judas Maccabaeus (“ the Hammer ”) 
won a series of victories over armies far stronger than he 
could muster, and died heroically in battle. His brothers 
Jonathan and Simon secured the independence of Judah, 
partly by the diplomatic aid of Rome, into whose hands how¬ 
ever these contacts unfortunately betrayed the nation to its 
later undoing. The age of the Maccabees was the most 
brilliant in the political history of Judaism, and promoted 
still further the recognition of Judaism by the world of that 
age. The later years were marred by family intrigues and 
rivalries, which were brought to an end by the arrival of 
Pompey the Roman general in 63 b.c. Meantime Antipater, 
an Edomite or Idumean, a member of that race which had 
been driven gradually from its rocky home by the Nabateans, 
and had encroached ever farther into Judah until Hebron 
became its capital, was made a general by the Maccabean 
Alexander Jannaeus, given a Jewish pedigree and honored 
in the state. His son was Herod, called the Great, and in 
the hands of these Edomites the last remnants of Maccabean 


— 13 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


power vanished. Herod married Mariamne the heiress of the 
Hasmonian line; he then murdered her, a treatment he ac¬ 
corded most of the other members of his family. Thus came 
to its close the brief period of Jewish independence and 
glory. 

The rise of Christianity was the third of the events which 
gave Judaism its conspicuous place in the thought of the 
world, for it was against the background of Judaism that 
Jesus and his first interpreters projected their activities, and 
no one can read the pages of the New Testament without 
having constantly brought to his attention the Jewish insti¬ 
tutions, rites and services and attitude of mind. Since the 
years of Ezra Judaism had gone on developing its legal 
ideals and its sensitiveness to the teachings of the Torah. 
The Mosaic institutes rose to a sacredness undreamed of in 
earlier days. Judaism seemed willing to accept any type 
of political tyranny provided it was left undisturbed in its 
elaboration of the law and its devotion to the Levitical re¬ 
quirements. Of these the temple was the symbol. The 
Building and the Book, the Temple and the Torah, were 
the chief objects of rabbinical and popular regard. In them 
Judaism found its glory and its joy. In this regard it reached 
back to the legal interests which had begun to develop so 
rapidly in the old Hebrew state, only that now since political 
ambitions were reduced to the minimum the loyalties to 
Levitical procedure had ampler place in the life of the com¬ 
munity. There was in this both the power and the peril 
of Judaism. It is difficult to see how it could have survived 
during the tragic days of the Roman war and the long cen¬ 
turies that followed without this apparently hard shell of 


— 14— 




Introduction 


legalism, in the elaboration and observance of which the 
saintly souls in the Jewish organization have found a refuge 
from external tragedies that might well have extinguished 
a less hardy and persistent race. 

On the other hand there were always those in the Jerusa¬ 
lem community who held the broader outlook of the Second 
Isaiah, of Jonah and the author of Ruth. They could not 
believe that the function of Zion was limited to its own life. 
There must be broader interests for those who shared the 
ideals of the great prophets of the Hebrew past. The politi¬ 
cal, social and religious conditions of Jerusalem were more 
and more disturbing. Frequent hopes were expressed that 
some prophet, teacher or deliverer would appear who would 
usher in the better day. When John the Baptist appeared 
he was hailed by many as this expected messenger of God, 
and multitudes gathered to listen to his words and to enroll 
themselves in the new movement. Among these was Jesus 
of Nazareth who had come apparently hoping to find in 
John the leader, for whom he and the thousands of his coun¬ 
trymen, especially those from the north, were waiting. Soon 
there came to him the conviction that he and not John was 
the expected leader. His brief ministry of a little more than 
three years was occupied in teaching, preaching and healing. 
All these he insisted he did by the authority of God and the 
power of the divine spirit. He called about him a little 
company of disciples whom in a series of journeys up and 
down the land he undertook to train for the interpretation 
and expansion of his plans when as he clearly foresaw he 
could no longer be with them. His ministry was hailed with 
enthusiasm at first, but poisoned by the insinuations of the 


- 15 “ 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


leaders of church and state the popular mind turned away 
from him and he fell a victim to ecclesiastical hostility and 
mob fury, sanctioned by Roman authority. 

His cause seemed totally lost. However, the affection 
and confidence which he had inspired in his growing com¬ 
pany of followers were too great to be quenched, and after 
his death some of these disciples began the preaching of his 
program of which he had spoken as the kingdom of God. 
At first the movement was local and more or less popular 
with the Jews of the capital. Some of the priests even be¬ 
came members of the order. But later, especially after the 
appearance of Stephen the Hellenist, the situation changed 
and a growing antagonism arose. This was brought to its 
head by the conversion of Saul, a young and ardent Jewish 
rabbi, to the new faith. It was the life work of this man 
to translate the gospel of Jesus from the limits of Palestine 
to the Graeco-Roman world, and from this time onward the 
attitude of the two groups was unfortunately increasingly 
suspicious and hostile. In reading through the New Testa¬ 
ment one wonders whether this attitude was justified. The 
Fourth Gospel uses constantly the word “ Jew ” with the 
meaning of an enemy of Jesus and the Christian move¬ 
ment. Many of the words reported as uttered by our Lord 
regarding the scribes and Pharisees seem less the disclosure 
of his wide and tolerant spirit than the hot reactions of the 
later missionary enterprise in its constant friction with Jewish 
legalists, both in Palestine and in the diaspora. 

From this time forth the two movements, both of which 
were daughter developments of the Hebrew faith, went their 
divided ways, Christianity to become within a few years the 

—16— 




Introduction 


official religion of the empire and Judaism to fall increas¬ 
ingly into the unhappy estate of a persecuted and despised 
religion. All this was unfortunate and unnecessary. Jesus 
was the most conspicuous contribution Judaism ever gave to 
the world. His first followers and interpreters were nearly 
all of that race. He loved his people, as did his chief apostle, 
who insisted that he would be willing to become anathema 
for the sake of his brethren according to the flesh. The fault 
for this estrangement belongs both to Christians and to 
Jews, though more to the former than to the latter. There 
has hardly been a generation which has not seen unpro¬ 
voked assaults upon one or another of the many communi¬ 
ties of the Jews instigated and carried on by rough and brutal 
leaders claiming the sanction of the Christian faith. The 
Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter have been days 
of terror to the Jewish population of most of the lands in 
which they have lived. Christianity has an uncounted tale 
of crimes for which to make reparations before its account 
with Judaism is closed. And generally its only approach to 
an understanding has been through aggressive and therefore 
quite impossible attempts at the conversion of this unhappy 
people. 

The Jewish-Roman war was the fourth of the move¬ 
ments which brought the Jews to the notice of the world. 
Growing restlessness, agitation of the Zealot party against 
high taxes, aggravated by acts of ruthless discipline on the 
part of Roman officials, brought on the tragedy. The whole 
province of Palestine flamed into revolt in the days of 68 and 
69 a.d. An uncounted number of Jews from many lands had 
come to Jerusalem for the annual celebration of the Pass- 


— 17 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


over. This increased the horror of the war. The Roman 
general Vespasian began the siege and Titus his son com¬ 
pleted it. The awfulness of the tragedy was heightened by 
the internal conflicts between fanatical Jewish leaders. Je¬ 
rusalem was taken and completely destroyed. The temple 
and palaces went up in flames, its people were slaughtered 
by thousands in the streets, its walls were laboriously over¬ 
thrown and the very site was plowed and sown with salt. 
Josephus, whose narrative is our most authentic record, esti¬ 
mates that not less than a million and a half Jews perished 
in this bloody catastrophe. 

That was the end of Jewish history. Titus decreed that 
no Jews were to be allowed in Palestine. But Jamnia, a 
town on the slopes of Judah toward the Philistine plain, was 
permitted to become the cultural center of the remnant of 
Jews, sharing in later days that honor with Tiberias and 
Safed in the north. The Jews were unable to remain con¬ 
tent with this rough and brutal ending of their national life. 
Repeatedly after this, as well as in earlier days, they re¬ 
volted against Rome. These efforts culminated in the revo¬ 
lution inaugurated by Joseph bar-Cochba in 135 a.d. Again 
the city fell under Roman wrath. Hadrian destroyed it 
completely and later erected a Roman city on its site, with 
a temple to Isis and an equestrian statue to the emperor on 
the site. No Jews were allowed to enter the city on pain 
of death. The name of Jew became one of disgrace, and in 
most places the garments he was compelled to wear were 
badges of dishonor. 

From that time to this the Jews have been wanderers 
and exiles driven from place to place as they searched for 

— 18 — 



Introduction 


rest and protection, or subjected to nameless outrages and 
massacres if they attempted to defend themselves. The 
story of Christian treatment of the Jew is one of the damn¬ 
ing records of history. They wandered into all lands from 
which they were not forcibly restrained. Russia, Poland, 
Spain, Hungary, North Africa, Rumania, Austria and in a 
less degree lands farther west have been the asylums they 
have sought. Christian assemblies like the third and fourth 
Lateran Councils decreed that Christians could not take 
service with Jews, and that the Jew must wear a special 
badge of disgrace, which was usually the gabardine and fur 
cap. They were forced to attend at sermons, and strict cen¬ 
sorship or actual confiscation and destruction of Jewish lit¬ 
erature was customary. The absurd charge of ritual mur¬ 
der brought against them by ignorant and superstitious 
people seemed to justify outbreaks of cruel violence against 
them. They were refused permission to cultivate the soil or 
to engage in most of the honorable trades, limitations which 
reduced them to the necessity of becoming money changers, 
a calling in which apparently in spite of repeated plunder¬ 
ings by rulers and other officials, they prospered. The ter¬ 
rible enginery of the Inquisition was invoked against them 
both in England and Spain. In the latter country the ex¬ 
pulsion of Jews as well as Moors in the reign of Ferdinand 
and Isabella brought irreparable disaster both to the exiles 
and to the land which had treated them with such severity. 

It is not strange therefore that Jews are to be found to¬ 
day in almost every part of the world, where they have 
sought refuge from persecution or an opportunity to earn 
a livelihood. In some instances they have kept their racial 


19 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


isolation, and in others they have amalgamated with the 
native stock, producing Jews of strangely mixed physiog¬ 
nomy and speech. On the whole, however, their numbers 
are no greater than they were nineteen hundred years ago, 
rather less. 

One can easily understand how, considering that natural 
race prejudice which even the most enlightened nations ap¬ 
pear to possess, the Jew with his striking though never 
wholly persistent physical characteristics, his economic push¬ 
fulness and cleverness, and his tendency to manners that 
mark him out as peculiar, has become too often the object 
of dislike and avoidance. He is the child and the product 
of the ghetto. He has all the furtive characteristics of the 
hunted and the oppressed. Only in recent years in western 
Europe and the United States has he come to his own. And 
this is unquestionably the reason for his deep gratitude to 
the peoples of these lands and his unselfish devotion to the 
causes of philanthropy in behalf of his own and other classes, 
and his efforts to reduce as far as possible the burden of race 
prejudice against groups even more unfortunate than his 
own. 

In the case of the Jew that prejudice is a real problem; 
for though members of that race are often victims of an in¬ 
feriority complex as they view the relation of their people 
to other races, there lies at the back of their minds a just 
sentiment of historic worth derived from centuries of schol¬ 
arly achievement in Palestine, in the schools of Jamnia, 
Safed and Tiberias, in Mesopotamia in the academies of 
Sura, Mehardea and Pompedita, as well as in numberless 
enterprises, institutions and homes throughout western Eu- 


— 20 — 






Introduction 


rope and America. As one of them has recently written, 
“To be born a Jew is to be born to a satyric comedy; often 
to be the clown that is slapped; sometimes to be momently 
the courtier and next moment the vassal, and always to be 
the immortal who laughs at the Dynasties and Empires and 
Principalities that fought to destroy him and themselves 
perished.” The first step in a truly promising approach to 
more appreciative relations with Judaism on the part of all 
other religious and secular groups is a higher estimate of 
the splendid contribution made by this race to civilization, 
and a just appraisal of the intolerable wrongs perpetrated 
against it under non-Jewish and dominantly Christian aus¬ 
pices. Such an assessment of the facts ought to lead to a 
humbling consciousness of responsibility, and the hope of 
a more friendly and constructive future. 

In the following chapters the facts thus briefly related 
in this introductory section are elaborated with fuller detail 
and documentation, and the discussion of present day Juda¬ 
ism, particularly in connection with the Zionist phase of its 
development, is presented. Palestine was the first home of 
Judaism, and of Zionism it is the vital interest. With that 
land in a general way the Jew has felt his connection through 
the centuries. It is therefore appropriate that a brief study of 
its more important features should precede the consideration 
of the problems connected with Judaism. The land and its 
various peoples have intimate relations, and of these peoples 
the Jews and the Arabs have an impressive and continuing 
interest in the country and in each other, which under wise 
leadership may develop into substantial values for religion 
and civilization. 


— 21 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


NOTE. The divine name Jahveh (pronounced Yah- 
weh) used in this book is believed by scholars to be the form 
of the covenant name of deity represented in the Hebrew text 
by the tetragrammaton or four-letter term “ JHVH.” It was 
regarded as mystically sacred and was not pronounced by 
the Jews; wherever it occurred in the text the word “ Ado- 
nai ” (my Lord) was substituted for it in the reading. By 
using the vowels of “ Adonai ” with the consonants “ JHVH ” 
the word “ Jehovah ” was contrived, which of course was 
neither a Hebrew nor an English word. It is an artificial 
form which only long usage in English Bibles could excuse. 
It seems better to employ the word in the form which we 
know from Greek renderings to have been its real pronun¬ 
ciation, or else use the translation LORD, as is done in most 
of the English versions. The word “ Jehovah ” has only the 
value of long and reverent usage, and rests on no authentic 
foundation. 


— 22 




I 

PALESTINE 


Of all lands known to the historian it is probable that 
Palestine possesses the greatest general interest. It was the 
home of the ancient Hebrews, the first interpreters of mono¬ 
theism. 1 It is the “ holy land ” to Jews, Samaritans, Chris¬ 
tians and Moslems in virtue of their several contacts and 
associations with it in the past and the present. In all ages 
it has been the bridge across which the nations have passed 
in migrations, campaigns or merchandising caravans in 
either direction between the grass lands of Mesopotamia 
and Egypt. In early Christian centuries it was the land of 
heart’s desire to thousands of penitents and pilgrims who 
left their bones in its soil. It was the magnet that drew 
half Europe to the adventure of the crusades. And in later 
days increasing numbers of travelers from all lands have 
made it their goal. Most recently events connected with the 
World War and the recovery of the country from Turkish 
rule have set in motion significant enterprises such as the 
new political alignment of the country, its agricultural and 
industrial development, the activities and ideals of Zionism, 
and the fresh interest awakened in archaeological research. 

1 Tradition affirmed that Moses described it to the expectant Hebrews in 
these terms (Deut. 11:10-12): “For the land whither thou goest in to possess 
it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst 
thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: but the land, 
whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of 
the rain of heaven; a land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the 
Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the 
end of the year.” 


— 23 — 


The Jew Through the Centuries 


It would appear that after centuries of stagnation under an 
inefficient and plundering administration, Palestine is at last 
coming to a new day. 

It is a little land. It lies along the southern third of the 
slanting Mediterranean coast which runs retreatingly from 
its north-eastward thrust near ancient Antioch southward 
to the long curve that reaches Egypt. It forms the south¬ 
western arc of the fertile crescent that curves upward from 
the Persian Gulf and bends down to the valley of the Nile. 
From the border of the French mandate of Syria near Beirut 
it extends south a distance of 140 miles to the borders of 
the Tih desert. Its traditional limits were from Dan at the 
sources of the Jordan under Lebanon to Beersheba the city 
of the seven wells far south in the Negeb. Its breadth 
ranges from 23 miles in the north to 80 at the southern 
limit. The area is given as 6000 square miles west of the 
Jordan and about 3800 square miles east of that trench, a 
total area about equal to the state of Massachusetts or the 
principality of Wales. It is bounded on the north by the 
mountain masses of the Lebanons, whose parallel ranges 
run north and south, separated by the wide valley called 
Coele-Syria. The chief elevation of the eastern range is 
Mt. Hermon (10,000 ft.). On the western border the Medi¬ 
terranean forms the continuous margin, maintaining a fairly 
regular coast line running south-westward, with one con¬ 
spicuous indentation caused by the seaward thrust of Mt. 
Carmel at Haifa. On the south there is the indeterminate 
line dividing the pasture lands from the desert. The tradi¬ 
tional boundary is the Wadi el-Arish, the “ river of Egypt, 2 

2 Gen. 15:18. 

— 24 — 




Palestine 


which reaches the Mediterranean south of Gaza, and is dry 
except in the rains. Here the Negeb, the southern desert, 
begins, stretching away to the east, and embracing all the 
rocky, arid region to which the various names of Seir, Paran, 
Horeb and Sinai are indefinitely and inexactly given . 3 On 
the east, completing the border of the country, there are the 
highlands of Moab, Gilead and Bashan, or the Hauran, 
which merge eastward into the Arabian desert and the 
Druze mountain. The nominal eastern border line is the 
haj or pilgrim railway which runs from Damascus to Mecca, 
along a route some twenty to thirty miles east of the Dead 
Sea and the Jordan . 4 Thus the land is fairly well enclosed 
by mountains, desert and sea. But these barriers are pene¬ 
trated in many places by the roads, ancient and modern, 
which afford ingress and egress. 

In Old Testament times it was known as Canaan 5 and 
its central mountain ridge as the “ hill country of the Amo- 
rites.” 6 In New Testament times the name Syria 7 was 
used, a rather indefinite term for the entire area between 

8 Somewhere in the area south of the Dead Sea the biblical writers located 
Sinai. The traditional location at Jebel Musa between the gulfs of Suez and 
Akaba is not earlier than the reign of Justinian and meets none of the biblical con¬ 
ditions (Ex. 3:1; Deut. 33:2; Judg. 5:4, 5). For a picture of the desert road to 
Egypt, which the ancients described as the “ ten terrible stretches of the desert ” 
cf. Isa. 30:6. The Kantara-Haifa railroad runs along this route since the war. 
The wells, or springs, whose brackish water created oases on this route, are Bir 
(well) Chenan, B. ed-Jukah, B. en-Nuss, B. Ibraham Basha, B. el-Abd, B. el-Mazar, 
Nun el-Shanube, Weli esh-Sheikh, Zuwiyid, Tell Rafeh, Wadi el-Arish. 

4 In the days of its greatest extent, such as the reign of Solomon, the 
Hebrew writers claimed as their land all the territory from “ the river,” i.e., the 
Euphrates, to the border of Egypt (1 Kings 4:21). 

6 Gen. 12:5; Ex. 15:15; etc. 

6 Num. 13:29; Deut. 1:44; Josh. 10:6. 

7 Luke 2:2. The name was an error of the Greek geographers for 
Assyria. 


25— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the sea coast and the eastern desert. Generally in the Chris¬ 
tian sources the names of the districts are used, the regions 
into which the country was divided in Roman days — Judea 
in the south, Samaria in the central section, Galilee in the 
north, and Perea east of the Jordan. In the Byzantine 
period the mistaken identification of the Philistines as the 
dominant inhabitants of the land led to the use of the name 
Philistia, or Palestia for the country, and from this came 
the name Palestine, the one which has prevailed in later 
centuries. Even more common is the title, the “ Holy 
Land,” in consideration of the sacredness of the country 
alike to Jews and Christians. 

Palestine is marked by an extremely varied topography. 
There are five areas, running from north to south, with 
fairly regular characteristics. Along the sea is the Maritime 
Plain, which is some four miles wide along the ancient 
Phoenician coast, disappears at the “ Ladder of Tyre,” where 
the road runs along the face of the cliff, widens again to 
four or five miles at Acre, narrows to 200 yards at the foot 
of Carmel, and then gradually widens until it attains a 
breadth of 20 miles at Askalon. The southern section of 
the plain forms the Philistine area, where the five cities of 
that people once held sway — Gaza, Gath, Ekron, Askalon 
and Ashdod. Further north lies the Plain of Sharon. 

The second division is known as the Shephelah, a broken 
plateau which forms the ascent to the central mountain 
range, and through which run many wadis or valleys from 
the ridge to the plain, most of them dry except in the rainy 
season. Important among them are the Valley of Aijalon, 
the route from the coast to Jerusalem in ancient times; the 


— 26— 




Palestine 


Wadi Ismain, up which ran the carriage road from Jaffa 
to Jerusalem; and the Wadi es-Surer, through which runs 
the Jaffa-Ludd-Jerusalem railroad. Several rivers cross this 
plain to the sea, among them the Litany (Leontes) near 
Tyre, the Kishon at Haifa, the Crocodile River, near ancient 
Caesarea, and the Aujah, near Jaffa. 

The third and most conspicuous feature of Palestine is 
the mountain range, running south from the Lebanons to 
the Tih desert, and constituting the central backbone of the 
land. In the north it forms the mountains of Galilee (the 
“Circle”); in the center it was known as Mt. Ephraim, and 
in the south as the “ hill country of Judea.” The elevation at 
Jerusalem is 2500 feet above the sea, and at Hebron, 20 miles 
south, 3000 feet. The range is interrupted in only one place 
— by the triangular plain of Esdraelon in lower Galilee, 
along whose southern side it is diverted toward the sea, and 
forms the ridge of Carmel. From the Mediterranean this 
central range has the appearance of an almost unbroken wall. 

The fourth division is the Jordan Valley, a trench deep¬ 
ened through the ages from a geological faulting of the 
strata, and forming one of the most significant topographi¬ 
cal features anywhere to be found. From springs at Banias 
and Tell el-Kadi at the foot of the Lebanons the Jordan runs 
as a narrow stream into the swampy Lake Hulah (Merom) 
whose surface is 7 feet higher than sea level. Twelve miles 
farther south it enters the Sea of Galilee (Chinnereth, Ti¬ 
berias), 14 miles long, 6 wide, and 682 feet below sea level. 
Sixty-six miles farther, with many plunges and windings 
which lengthen its course to nearly three times this distance, 
with a fall of 610 feet, it enters the Dead Sea. Here it pours 


— 27— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


its six million tons of fresh water daily into a basin of water 
so impregnated with mineral salts that no living creature 
can exist in it, and so heavy that bathers find it impossible 
to swim. 8 The water is beautifully clear, and steam and sail 
boats transport passengers and freight across it. Several 
streams along the eastern and western shores empty into it, 
but it has no outlet, the intense heat of the region causing a 
degree of evaporation which keeps the surface at a measur¬ 
ably uniform level. That level is 1292 feet below the Medi¬ 
terranean, and the sea is about 1200 feet deep in the deepest 
part. It is thus apparent that the vertical difference between 
the altitude of Hebron and the floor of the Dead Sea, less 
than twenty miles distant, is more than a mile. There is no 
other chasm of this character on the planet. The mountains 
of the central range are deeply cut along the western border 
of the sea and the river, by ravines, which in the early cen¬ 
turies of the Christian era were the resort of hermits who 
made their abode in niches dug into the faces of the cliffs. 
The sandy plain north of the sea is curiously marked by 
mounds and hillocks, the result of erosion by the winter 
floods. 

The Jordan (called by the natives El-Ghor) is on the 
average about 100 feet wide and 10 feet deep, though there 
are many fords where crossing is easy on foot or with ani¬ 
mals. But in contrast with the Nile or the Euphrates it has 
little value either for navigation or irrigation. Its total fall of 

8 It has 25% of mineral salts, of which chloride of sodium reaches 
7%; potassium chloride, i%; magnesium bromide, 45%; magnesium chloride, 
11%; these proportions increase somewhat with the depth. The total amount of 
potash is about 2000 million tons; of magnesium bromide, 900 million tons. The 
salt is of good quality, and a concession has been granted for commercial evapora¬ 
tion, which further yields a valuable concentrate of bromine. 

—28— 





Palestine 


more than 2000 feet renders it unsuitable for boat traffic. It 
is literally “ the plunger,” as its name implies. And while 
its overflow in the rainy season, “ the swellings of Jordan,” 9 
supports rank vegetation along its banks, it is too far below 
the level of the land to be of value for irrigation or other 
purposes without expensive lifting machinery or hydraulic 
plants like that of the Palestine Electrical Corporation, seven 
kilometers south of the Sea of Galilee. 

The fifth zone or division of the land is the east-Jordan 
plateau, a region coveted as pasture land in early days, and 
later occupied by several important cities in Graeco-Roman 
times. Various mountain peaks rise to measurable heights in 
this region, notable among which is Nebo (2843 ft.). Many 
streams descend to the Jordan and the Dead Sea from this 
side, chief among which are the Yarmuk (Hieromax) which 
carries the Haifa-Damascus railroad; the Zerka (Jabbok) 
about half way between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea; 
and the Mojib (Arnon) which enters the latter near its 
middle point. These five strips or zones comprise the his¬ 
toric region of Palestine. 10 

The great plain of Esdraelon 11 is a triangle some fifteen 
miles on each side, whose points are marked approximately 
by Jenin, Mt. Tabor, and the outflow of the Kishon to the 
sea. Mt. Tabor is a symmetrical elevation (1900 ft.) from 
whose summit a magnificent view is obtained, embracing 

9 Jer. 12:5. 

10 The writer of Num. 34:1-15 includes only the west-Jordan territory as 
proper Hebrew possessions, though he notes that a portion of the clans elected to 
remain beyond the Jordan. Mukaddasi, an Arab traveler of the middle ages, 
speaks of four zones of Palestine — the sea coast, the mountain range, the Jordan 
Valley, and the highlands beyond that border on the desert. 

11 A Greek corruption of Jezreel. 


— 29 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Mt. Hermon, the Sea of Galilee, the mountains of Bashan 
across the Jordan, Mt. Gilboa, Little Hermon, the hills of 
Nazareth, the Carmel ridge and the Mediterranean. In the 
spring the plain itself resembles a huge carpet marked with 
long regular strips of different shades of green, the unfenced 
“ fields ” with their varying crops, separated only by bound¬ 
ary stones. Westward toward Carmel and the sea lies Har 
Magedon, the site of ancient Megiddo, the highway and 
battlefield of antiquity, and the apocalyptic scene of the last 
great battle of history. 12 To the south, near the center of 
ancient Canaan rise the two peaks of Ebal (3077 ft.) and 
Gerizim (2849 ft.), the latter the sacred mountain of the 
Samaritans. Further still to the south, and only three miles 
north-west of Jerusalem is Nebi Samwil (2935 ft.), once 
thought to be the site of Mizpah, and revered as the tradi¬ 
tional home of Samuel the prophet. It is the Mons Gaudi 
of the crusaders. 

The climate of Palestine varies with the elevation and 
the season. Small as it is, it has all types from sub-tropical 
to sub-arctic. At the sea coast the season is that of southern 
France; on the mountain ridge that of central Germany, 
with periods of snow in winter; in the lower Jordan Valley 
the heat is excessive in summer, and here the Herods con¬ 
structed their winter palaces and bathing pools; in contrast, 
Mt. Hermon has a crown of snow through much of the year. 
The average temperature of the country in summer is 75 
Fahr., but rises at times to 100 and even above. The heat is 
usually tempered by cool winds from the sea; but on occa¬ 
sions the Sirocco, a hot wind from the eastern desert, brings 

12 2 Kings 23:29; Rev. 16:16. 

— 30 — 





Palestine 


discomfort and languor. 13 The average winter temperature 
is 50, and cold winds often bring it down to the freezing 
point, with snow. There is usually a dry summer and a 
rainy winter. The rains begin in November (the “ early 
rain ”) and continue intermittently until March or April, at 
which time the “ latter rain ” ends the wet period. The 
average rainfall is 28 inches. In the spring the flowers are 
abundant, and scarlet anemones, yellow and purple mustard, 
roses of Sharon, poppies and hundreds of other varieties 
form great splashes of color on the hillsides and in the plains. 
There are said to be over two thousand varieties of flowers 
in Palestine. Along the water courses tamarisks, poplars, 
willows, chrysanthemums and oleanders abound. Oranges, 
sycamore figs, pomegranates and olives form an important 
part of the orchard product, and vineyards are a profitable 
possession. The gardens produce melons, artichokes, and a 
great variety of vegetables. The common crops are barley, 
millet, wheat and sesame, and in the region of Jericho cot¬ 
ton, sugar cane, date palms and bananas thrive. 

The long dry summer turns the richly flowered land¬ 
scape of spring to an unattractive brown. Water is one of 
the most precious of gifts. Most of the wadis are dry except 
in the rains. There are a few springs which afford neighbor¬ 
hood supplies, such as the abundant sources of the Jordan, 
the Fountain of Mary at Nazareth, the Virgin’s Fountain 
below the east wall of Jerusalem, Elisha’s Fountain at Jeri¬ 
cho, and a few others. The rainfall was always treasured 
in cisterns, of which there are a great number in all parts of 
the land, in every degree of repair and disrepair. Pools for 

13 Jer. 4:11. 

— 31 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


storing water were constructed in various localities, like the 
so-called Solomon’s Pools, probably Herodian, south of Jeru¬ 
salem, the Pool of the Patriarchs (often miscalled the Pool 
of Hezekiah) in Jerusalem, and the pool at Hebron, some of 
which received or supplied their water through aqueducts, 
of which fragments still remain. There were also hot 
springs, like those south of Tiberias, and those at Calirrhoe, 
near the Dead Sea. These were much frequented for me¬ 
dicinal purposes. 

In ancient times Palestine must have been rich in forests 
as well as orchards. The forests have largely disappeared 
due to the many wars that have desolated the land. The fa¬ 
mous cedars of Lebanon are today reduced to two little 
groves, and under Turkish rule, which exacted tax for every 
fruit-bearing tree in the orchards and gardens, it was the 
custom to destroy the trees as soon as the tax increased to 
prohibitive figure, or the yield of fruit decreased. Since the 
war some efforts at reforestation have been made, particu¬ 
larly in the south-western section of the country. One is also 
aware that great damage has been wrought by earthquake. 
References in the scriptures make this evident. 14 The ca¬ 
lamities that befell the country from this cause in recent 
years 15 are well remembered. 

Of the mineral resources of Palestine only moderate 
statements can be made. The confident words of the Deu- 
teronomist, “ a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose 
hills thou mayest dig brass ” 16 seem much too bold in the 

14 Amos i:i; Zech. 14:5; Matt. 24:7. 

15 In 1837, 1850 and 1927, in which latter year many structures were 
destroyed in Jerusalem, Jericho, Nablous, etc. 

16 Deut. 8:9. 


““32 — 



Palestine 


light of experience. As already indicated, the Dead Sea 
contains valuable mineral salts. There are at Jebel Usdum 
at the southern end of the sea, massive beds of salt in mar¬ 
ketable condition. Gypsum is found in several places, par¬ 
ticularly in the Ghor south of the Sea of Galilee. Sulphur 
and alum are also obtainable as secondary products. Petro¬ 
leum has been found in several localities, particularly at the 
south end of the Dead Sea, where there is seepage of bitu¬ 
men and outflow of oil. Phosphates are found in sufficient 
quantities to serve as a local fertilizer, but not for export. 
Poor iron ores occur, and traces of copper. 

In considering the limitations of Palestine in size, re¬ 
sources and fertility one is surprised that it should receive 
such praise from biblical writers, as “ a land flowing with 
milk and honey,” 17 i.e., rich in natural products, and in¬ 
viting to the stranger. It must be remembered, however, 
that these descriptive words were not used by people accus¬ 
tomed to the opulent agricultural and mineral lands of Eu¬ 
rope and America, but by men from the desert, to whom 
Palestine seemed a veritable paradise. For generations such 
clans had swept in across the Jordan to strike roots if they 
were able, and if not, to plunder and retreat. In contrast 
with the desert lands around, Palestine was rich and beauti¬ 
ful, and the Old Testament has many references to its at¬ 
tractions. 18 For such a little country and in the thought of 
people of such desert traditions it was very alluring. It was 
a country in which flocks and herds could be reared. Sheep, 
goats, cattle (though of a poor sort), camels, asses, horses 

17 Deut. 8:7-9; Num. 13:27; Josh. 5:6. 

18 Cf. Ps. 104; Song of Solomon, passim, etc. 


—33 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


and donkeys have been common property in all the cen¬ 
turies. Wild animals, some of them suitable for game, are 
found. More than five hundred varieties of animals have 
been listed, three hundred and fifty species of birds, ninety 
of reptiles, and forty of fishes. 

The population of Palestine, while showing a few domi¬ 
nant groups, is today and has always been of the most varied 
racial stocks. As the great highway from north-east to 
south-west the country caught and retained fragments of 
every migration and campaign. As nomads or as villagers 
they have come from every region, and have represented 
every tribal strain. More than forty languages are spoken 
within its borders. As Sir George Adam Smith says, “ Pal¬ 
estine has never belonged to any one nation alone, and prob¬ 
ably never will.” 19 Its ports, though few and difficult, were 
well known alike to pirates and traders, the sea powers of 
the levant. Land access was easy through a dozen gateways, 
and merchants, soldiers, colonists, pilgrims and world trav¬ 
elers have made it a thoroughfare in all ages. Repeatedly 
its population has been reduced by war, massacre, famine 
and other tragedies almost to the vanishing point, only to 
be replenished again in the recovery of the land. In recent 
years, particularly since the World War, the numbers have 
grown, due to improved conditions and Zionist enthusiasm. 
In 1914 the population was recorded as 689,280; in 1922 as 
757,182; 20 in 1926 as 852,268 and in 1931 as 1,305,154. 

19 Historical Geography of the Holy Land, p. 58. 

20 The various groups were listed in 1926: Moslems, 590,890; Jews, 
83*790; Christians, 73,024; Druses, 7,028; Samaritans, 165. Besides there were 
small groups of Hindus, Sikhs, Sudanese, Circassians, Kurds, Persians and Abys- 
sinians. At the present time the census reports a Jewish population of more than 
170,000. 


—34 




Palestine 


Palestine is not a self-supporting land. Through the 
centuries it has added to its modest income from agriculture 
a constant revenue from tourists and pilgrims. The sacred 
places of Christians, Jews and Moslems are here, and large 
sums are expended by visitors through the usual channels of 
entertainment, transport and trade, or are contributed to the 
various shrines by the devout. In addition the Jewish agen¬ 
cies in Europe and America have made generous donations 
for the support of their indigent brethren in Palestine, and 
in aid of the Zionist projects such as the purchase of land, 
the erection of educational and benevolent institutions, and 
the prosecution of industrial enterprises. 

One of the important problems of life in Palestine 
through the centuries has been that of travel and transpor¬ 
tation. Except along the sea-shore and in the plains the 
roads in ancient times were hardly more than trails fol¬ 
lowed by camels, asses, horses and human beings. It is dif¬ 
ficult to understand how chariots, such as were used by 
Hebrew, Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian and Babylonian armies 
could have traversed the rocky plateaus and mountain 
ranges. Yet it is clear from the records that such war equip¬ 
ment was used, and this presupposes better roads than sur¬ 
vived in later ages . 21 Fragments of Roman roads are found 
in several places and such highways were the wonder of the 
world. The main roads were of course the essential com¬ 
mercial and military arteries that connected Palestine with 

21 An Egyptian courier of the thirteenth century b.c. writes of roads 
in Canaan — “ a ravine is on one side of thee, the mountain rises on the other. 
On thou goest jolting ... thy chariot on its side.” (Gardiner, Papyrus Anastasi 
I p. 26, quoted by J. Garstang, Foundations of Bible History, p. 78.) The Ori¬ 
ental Institute of the University of Chicago has found that Megiddo was a 
chariot-city of Solomon with stables for 120 horses. 


—35 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


neighboring countries. Of these the principal examples were 
the “ Via Maris,” or sea-shore route, running south along 
the Mediterranean from Asia Minor, through Phoenicia, 
past the “ inscription rocks ” at Dog River, 22 and on down 
the coast to Egypt; a branch of this route northward diverged 
near Acre or at the pass of Megiddo, and passing Safed, 
crossed the ancient bridge called by the Arabs Jisr Banat 
Ya’akoub (the “ Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob ”), a little 
south of Lake Hulah, going on over the high foothills of 
Mt. Hermon to Damascus and the further east; another road 
started at Hebron or perhaps at Beersheba, and followed the 
mountain range northward through Jerusalem, Shechem, the 
great plain, past the Sea of Galilee, and joined the other route 
near the bridge. Three trade routes ended at Gaza, all pass¬ 
ing through Petra, one from Yemen, one from Akaba, and 
one from Basra and Jauf. Similarly Jaffa, ancient Joppa, was 
an important gateway, both for land and sea traffic. Kan- 
tara on the border of Egypt, Jaffa, Haifa under Mt. Carmel, 
and Beirut, north of Tyre and Sidon, are the western gates 
of Palestine, as Jericho and Beisan were those facing east. 
These are examples of “ trunk lines ” that reached the im¬ 
portant centers, and were intersected by innumerable roads 
of less significance, by means of which travel and traffic were 
facilitated. The traveler in Palestine today can see in close 
proximity the four types of roadway — the ancient camel- 
caravan routes, still in use; the carriage roads that gave the 

22 On cliffs at this point a few miles north of Beirut are the records left 
by Thutmose III, Ramses II, Sennacherib, Cambyses, Alexander, Pompey, Tims, 
Saladin, Napoleon, Lord Allenby, and many others who led armies along this 
route and carved the stories of their conquests in this interesting “ autograph 
album ” of the ages. 


—36— 




Palestine 


western world its first easy access to the country; the smooth 
automobile roads of the present period, over which one is 
hurried in a three-days rush through the land; and the rail¬ 
roads, which connect Cairo with Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa; 
Haifa with Beisan, the Sea of Galilee and Damascus; and 
Beirut with Ryak, Damascus, Baalbec and the Baghdad line 
at Aleppo. The aeroplane provides a fifth and much more 
rapid means of approach. 

The story of Palestine from its pre-Hebrew days to the 
present need not be given here. It is sufficient to note the 
fact that somewhere around the fifteenth century b.c. He¬ 
brew tribes made their way into this land, already occu¬ 
pied by other Semites — Amorites, Canaanites and related 
groups — and secured a foothold. At this time Canaan was 
a province of the extensive empire of Egypt, as is shown by 
the Tell el-Amarna letters. Excavations at Beisan (Beth- 
Shan) show that Seti I and Ramses II held authority there, 
and that after Syria was lost to the Hittites, Palestine was 
still held. The historical materials relating to the country 
are very meagre outside the Old Testament, which makes 
it a source of great importance. The Shishak inscrip¬ 
tion records a fateful moment in the reign of Reho- 
boam; the Moabite Stone of King Mesha throws interest¬ 
ing light on the period of Ahab and his immediate 
successors; and the Siloam inscription gives a momentary 
glimpse into the artisan life of Jerusalem in the days of 
Hezekiah. 

After a rough period of gradual adjustment in the land, 
in which the culture seems to have been at a low level, mon¬ 
archy was established under David, and though the king- 


— 37 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


dom was broken asunder at the close of the reign of his 
successor, Solomon (937 b.c.), the Hebrew rule continued 
for more than 200 years with broken dynasties in the north¬ 
ern kingdom of Israel; and for three and a half centuries in 
the southern kingdom of Judah where the line of David con¬ 
tinued to hold the throne. During these periods the land 
was frequently invaded, and was often under the authority 
of foreign kings. A succession of subjugations of this char¬ 
acter marked the fortunes of the Hebrews. Philistines, Syri¬ 
ans, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians held sovereignty 
over the people with brief intervals of independence be¬ 
tween, until after repeated tragedies, expatriations and col¬ 
lapses of the national institutions, the Hebrew state com¬ 
pletely vanished in the first half of the fifth century b.c.; 
its people perished or were dispersed, and Hebrew history 
came to an end. 

During these years the fortunes of the land varied with 
the seasons and the political situation. There were years of 
plenty and years of drought and famine. There were times 
of national prosperity under efficient kings, like Solomon, 
Jehoshaphat, Uzziah and Hezekiah in Jerusalem; and Jero¬ 
boam I, Omri, Ahab, and Jeroboam II in Israel, in which 
their territories were widened and their wealth increased. 
Then there were days of gloom when through invasion or 
civil war the people were reduced to narrow margins, as in 
the bloody “ reforms ” of Jehu, when the royal family, the 
nobles and great numbers of the population were massacred 
in cold blood; or in the straitened times of Jehoahaz when 
under Syrian pressure the fighting forces of Israel were re¬ 
duced to “fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand 

-38- 




Palestine 


footmen.” 23 The struggles between the advocates of Baal¬ 
ism and the partisans of Jahveh were the causes of much 
bloodshed and economic loss running through generations. 
And always there were the dangers from desert raids and 
the plunderings of armed forces on their way through the 
land, against which no fortresses or garrisons were wholly 
effective. 

Moral and religious conditions were often in direct con¬ 
trast with those prevailing in the political and economic 
realm. The days of greatest prosperity were usually marked 
by ethical disorders and the decline of loyalty to prophetic 
standards. Probably for this reason they were the periods 
in which the great prophets arose. The proverb, “When 
the tale of bricks is doubled, then comes Moses,” seems to 
have been illustrated in several periods of national prosperity 
but moral decline in Israel. Over against Jeroboam I there 
stood Ahijah of Shiloh; Ahab’s leanings toward heathenism 
and idolatry met the reproofs of Elijah; and in the prosper¬ 
ous but worldly era of Jeroboam II came the first of the 
great writing prophets, Amos and Hosea. The fact that 
Palestine was a small country, and that the division of the 
nation at the close of Solomon’s reign weakened it disas¬ 
trously and destroyed forever the possibility of a strong and 
aggressive state, made inevitable the ultimate downfall of 
both Israel and Judah at the hands of their stronger neigh¬ 
bors. The final extinction of the Hebrew nation was a 
foregone conclusion, considering its exposed position, its in¬ 
herent weakness, its lack of competent leadership, and the 
constant mistakes into which its kings and counselors were 


23 2 Kings, chapts. 9, 10; 13:7. 

—39— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


betrayed. Its heritage passed to the world through the sur¬ 
vival of its prophetic, priestly, philosophic and devotional 
literature, and the transmission of its spiritual message 
to men of kindred mind but of many races and distant 
lands. Into the keeping of its daughter faiths, especially 
Judaism and Christianity, the rich dower of Hebrew thought 
and life was passed. The Hebrews failed as a nation, but as 
the interpreters of ethical monotheism, the spiritual moni¬ 
tors of humanity, “ their line has gone out into all the earth, 
and their words to the end of the world.” 

The traditions of Hebrew monarchy, under which the 
kingdoms of Israel and Judah had been organized, were 
gone, and a new national group, the Jews, came into being. 
The government passed into the hands of a priesthood, 
which claimed descent from the Levitical clans of the past. 
The synagogue became the center of the common worship. 
Jewish parties and professions like the Pharisees, scribes, 
Sadducees and Essenes took form, and a council called the 
Sanhedrin administered a measure of control. 

With the rise of Judaism under Nehemiah and Ezra a 
new day dawned for Palestine. Although the Jewish colony 
was at first confined to the narrow limits of the former 
kingdom of Judah, from which it derived its name, its in¬ 
fluence gradually spread to the adjacent regions. After 
years of struggle against unfavorable circumstances, Judaism 
was apparently saved from absorption into the Hellenism of 
the second century b.c. by the Maccabean uprising in de¬ 
fense of the Torah and the priestly rites of the sanctuary. 
This was the most heroic period in its history and furnished 
the little state with a line of rulers, the Maccabees, who gave 


—40 — 




Palestine 


it a brief period of independence, and continued in power 
until the arrival of Pompey, the conquest of the land by 
Rome, and the rise of the Roman proteges, the Edomite 
Herods. During the Maccabean period the Jewish state 
was greatly enlarged. Neighboring regions were conquered 
and their citizens converted to Judaism, either by persuasive 
or forcible means. Missionaries carried out the message of 
Judaism into other portions of the empire, so that members 
of the diaspora (Jews living in the “ dispersion ”) were 
found in all lands. 

The Jewish population of Palestine grew rapidly. It 
overreached the limited confines of Judea and occupied the 
northern region of Galilee. Josephus affirms that in his day, 
the first century a.d., there were 240 towns in Galilee, and 
40 walled cities, with a total population of more than three 
millions. 24 There was also a large Jewish population in 
Perea, east of the Jordan, in the Greek cities like Gerasa, 
Philadelphia, etc., and in many towns and villages. The 
central part of western Palestine was occupied by the Sa¬ 
maritans, who had increased in numbers and dominated 
the province of Samaria with its metropolis at Neapolis 
(Nablous), although the Herodian city of Samaria (Se- 
baste) a few miles distant, of which Caesarea was the sea¬ 
port, was second only to Jerusalem in the beauty of its archi¬ 
tecture and the elaborate scale on which its affairs were 
projected as a Herodian residence. With this semi-Roman 
ostentation the Samaritans of the province had little to do. 
The old rivalry between them and the Jews continued as 


24 The statements of this author are taken with some allowance by 
scholars. 


— 4 I — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the New Testament proves, and Jewish travelers in going 
from Judea to Galilee avoided contact with the disesteemed 
Samaritans by crossing the Jordan and traveling through 
Perea. 25 The rivalry between the temple in Jerusalem, the 
one public structure that survived the collapse of the south¬ 
ern kingdom, and the Samaritan sanctuary on Mt. Gerizim 
came to its issue in the destruction of the latter by John 
Hyrcanus in 128 b.c.; and in place of the older sanctuary 
of Zerubbabel in Jerusalem, Herod the Great erected the 
gorgeous temple which in Jesus’ day was the pride of the 
Jews in spite of their detestation of its builder. This was 
the most brilliant period in the political history of Judaism, 
and all the more significant as it preceded by so short an in¬ 
terval the outbreak of the Jewish war against Rome, the 
tragic and murderous siege of Jerusalem by Titus, the 
slaughter of its people and of vast numbers of Jews who 
had come to Jerusalem to attend the Passover, the downfall 
and complete destruction of the city, and the end of the 
Jewish state (70 a.d.). Thus for a period of five centuries 
(445 B.C.-70 a.d.) the Jews were in possession, first of Judea, 
and later of the rest of Palestine east and west of the Jordan 
with the exception of Samaria. 

The rise of Christianity had little if any influence on the 
political or social life of Palestine. From the point of view 
of the administration, either the local Jewish council in 
Jerusalem or the Roman control of the land, the Christians, 
or Nazarenes as they were called, were but a small group 
within the Jewish community, and it was only in later years 

25 The fact that Jesus chose to go through Samaria on one of his journeys 
occasioned comment by the writer of the Fourth Gospel (John 4:3). 


—42— 




Palestine 


that the movement became important in the affairs of the 
country. 

The Roman era in Palestine wrought a complete change 
in all aspects of its life. The door was first opened to this 
western control when Judas Maccabaeus in a moment of 
desperation sent an embassy to Rome asking assistance 
against the forces of Syria (164 b.c.). This was successful, 
but it established the tradition of Roman authority which 
led to the final absorption of Palestine into the empire, and 
ultimately to the destruction of Jerusalem. From the arrival 
of Pompey, who annexed Syria in 66 b.c. and conquered 
Jerusalem in 63, to the time of Hadrian and the second 
Roman war, the country was completely under Roman 
control, and every effort at independence met with drastic 
repression. The province of Palestine during this period 
included the territory from Caesarea to Rafa, the ancient 
Raphia on the coast, and as far east as Gerasa (Jerash). 
Roman roadways were constructed, fragments of which are 
still to be found along the Via Maris, on the way from 
Jerusalem to Nablous, near Tell Sandahannah in the south¬ 
west, and near the upper Jordan, where a Roman bridge 
still stands. 26 Other Roman remains such as mosaic floors 
have been found at Beit Jibrin, near Samakh on the Sea 
of Galilee, at Kulomeh, west of Jerusalem, where the tenth 
legion was quartered, and in a number of other places. 

The Herods who held a titular rule under Roman pat¬ 
ronage were a race of builders, whose work bore the Roman 

26 The Romans were the master road-builders, and their work remains in 
many parts of the world from Britain to India. The title of the emperors was 
Pontifex Maximus, “ chief bridge-builder,” a designation that was later assumed 
by the popes. 


—43— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


stamp. Herod the Great not only erected the third temple 
in Jerusalem, but built the three towers on the western 
hill, Mariamne, named for his wife, Phasaelus, for his 
brother, and Hippicus, for a friend. The so-called tower of 
David, near the Jaffa Gate, is a survival of this enterprise. 
Many other architectural achievements at Sebaste, Caesarea, 
Antioch, Banias and in other places, were proofs of his 
genius, liberality or extravagance. A fortress on the sum¬ 
mit of the Frank Mountain south of Jerusalem, and a palace 
in the town at its foot were his gifts to the place which was 
later the site of his sepulchre. The “ Pools of Solomon ” 
south of Jerusalem are thought to be Herodian. Herod 
Antipas, his son, erected such structures as the palaces at 
Tiberias and Machaerus, and another son, Philip, who ruled 
a small territory east of Galilee enlarged the building opera¬ 
tions of his father at Banias, where one of the sources of 
the Jordan issues from its cave, and named the place Caesa¬ 
rea Philippi in honor of the emperor and himself. An¬ 
other member of the family, Herod Agrippa, a grandson of 
Herod the Great, appointed by Claudius king of Judea, 
added to the fortifications of Jerusalem. The Roman pro¬ 
curators, seven in number, who held the actual authority 
in Palestine, added some features to the public works. Pi¬ 
late’s name is connected by tradition with the construction 
of the sealed spring that supplied the “ Pools of Solomon.” 

Meantime the resentment of the Jews against Roman 
administration increased during the years in which the 
Herods and the procurators were in control. Through the 
governorships of Cumanus, Felix, Festus, Albanus and Ges- 
sius Florus (48-66 a.d.) the turmoil grew in violence. Ces- 


— 44 “ 




Palestine 


tius Gallus proconsul of Syria was defeated by a Jewish 
force, and Vespasian the ablest general at Nero’s command 
was sent to Palestine. His son Titus completed the sub¬ 
jugation of the country and the destruction of Jerusalem. 
But even these drastic measures did not wholly crush the 
Jewish spirit. Agitation was still continued, and in 116 a.d. 
in the reign of Hadrian occurred a fresh uprising of Jews 
in the empire. This was suppressed with fresh cruelties, 
and on the site of the revered Jerusalem, the holy city of 
so many generations, Hadrian erected a Roman city which 
he named Aelia Capitolina, in which a temple to Jupiter 
occupied the place where the temples of Solomon, Zerub- 
babel and Herod had stood, and near it on the east where 
the Dome of the Chain now stands, he placed an equestrian 
statue of himself. This outrage against the sentiments of 
the Jews was the cause of a fresh and furious revolt under 
Simon bar-Cochba (“ son of the star ”) in 132-135 a.d. This 
rebellion was crushed by Rome, the final stand of the Jews 
being made at Bether (Bittir) a station today on the Jaffa 
line, south-west of Jerusalem. The edict of Titus expelling 
Jews from Palestine was now made increasingly strin¬ 
gent, with resulting hardships endured by this unhappy 
people. 

It was evident that Rome was not to be left undisturbed 
in possession of Palestine. Already in 51 b.c. and again in 
40 the Parthians invaded Syria under Procorus, took Antioch 
and Sidon, and plundered Jerusalem. Their serious object 
however was to place Antigonus, one of the Maccabean 
claimants, upon the throne. Failing in this, they withdrew. 
This was but one of several invasions and attacks from out- 


45— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


side peoples during the centuries when Rome controlled 
Palestine. 

The conversion of the emperor Constantine to Chris¬ 
tianity in 324 a.d. caused the change of the official religion 
of the empire from paganism to the new faith, and his 
mother Helena made a pilgrimage to Palestine where she 
was able according to the belief of the time to discover the 
site of Calvary, the true cross, and other sacred localities 
and relics. A church was erected on the supposed site of 
the holy sepulchre, and sanctuaries at Bethlehem, Nazareth 
and other sacred spots were built. 

In 361 a.d. the emperor Julian, called by the Christians 
“ the apostate,” because of his reversion to paganism, re¬ 
scinded the edicts against the Jews, and gave orders for the 
restoration of the temple at Jerusalem. However he did 
not live to see this project realized. 

In 395 a.d. the Roman empire was divided into the east¬ 
ern and western sections, and Palestine passed into the pos¬ 
session of the Greek half, of which the capital was at Con¬ 
stantinople. A few years later, in 451, Jerusalem was made 
the seat of a patriarch. The Madeba mosaic map, in a Greek 
church of this period east of the Jordan, represents Jeru¬ 
salem as an important city, inclosed with walls, and shows 
the location and form of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

The reign of the emperor Justinian (527-565 a.d.) 
brought fresh architectural enrichment to Palestine. One 
of the most important Christian structures erected by him 
was a church in Jerusalem in honor of the Virgin Mary, 
built (534 a.d.) on the southern end of the temple area. 
This structure was converted into a mosque called A 1 

-46- 





Palestine 


Aksa 27 by the caliph Omar in 637. Justinian also built 
the Golden Gate on the east side of the temple platform. 

In 614 a.d. the Persians under Chosroes II (Khosru) in¬ 
vaded Palestine, plundered Jerusalem and massacred most 
of the inhabitants. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was 
burned, and many other structures were ruined. Historians 
affirm that the Jews took an active part with the Persians 
in this attack upon the city. The emperor Heraclius re¬ 
covered the territory for the empire in 629 a.d. and cele¬ 
brated his victory over Chosroes by entering Jerusalem 
through the Golden Gate. At this time the Jews living 
there were slain in reprisal. 

The next event of moment was the Moslem conquest of 
Palestine, a part of one of the most remarkable political 
and religious revolutions in history. Mohammed was born 
at Mecca in 570 a.d. Twenty-five years after his death in 
632 a.d. his Arabs were in control of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, 
Babylonia and Persia. A half century later all northern 
Africa and most of Spain confessed the faith of Islam, and 
its forces were pushing into southern France. In a cen¬ 
tury from the birth of the Prophet the call to prayer was 
heard from the minarets of ten thousand mosques. The 
desert had invaded the sown; the tent had conquered the 
castle. 

There had been Arab immigrations into Palestine before 
the Moslem conquest, but with the coming of the armies 
of the Prophet this movement was greatly increased, and 
new elements were rapidly added to the Christian, Jewish 

27 “The distant,” i.e. from Mecca. It was reconverted into a church by 
the knights of St. John during the crusades. 


— 47 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


and Samaritan population. In 634 a.d. the forces of Heraclius, 
the Greek emperor, were defeated by the Arab leader Abu 
Bekr, and in 637 Khaled ibn il-Walid, another Moslem chief¬ 
tain, defeated the Greeks at the Yarmuk, and the Byzan¬ 
tine empire in Syria fell. The caliph Omar took Jeru¬ 
salem after a brief siege, but treated its people with kindness. 
He changed its name to Beit el-Makdis (“ the holy house ”) 
or El-Kuds (“ the holy ”), by which name the Arabs know 
it today. Thus three hundred years from the erection of 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Constantine, the 
Moslems conquered the country which they continued to 
hold, with brief intervals during crusader times, until Lord 
Allenby’s entry in 1917. The land has therefore been in 
Moslem possession for a little less than thirteen hundred 
years. 

At the time at which Jerusalem fell to Omar, the seat 
of the caliphate was transferred from Mecca to Damascus. 
With reverence for the traditions of Jerusalem, particularly 
those which connected the Prophet with the place, Omar 
cleared the site of the ancient temples of accumulated debris, 
and built there a temporary mosque. This was never 
called the Mosque of Omar. The real Mosque of Omar is 
just outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on the 
supposed site of the caliph’s prayer of gratitude when he 
took the city in 637 a.d. Tradition affirms that he refused 
to enter the church, lest that fact should make it a mosque. 28 
It should be remembered to the credit of Islam that these 
shrines particularly sacred to the Christians were not con- 

28 There is also a small Mosque of Omar in one of the aisles of the Mosque 
al-Aksa. 


-48- 




Palestine 


verted into mosques, although this change took place in 
most cases, such as Santa Sophia at Constantinople, the 
Church of St. John in Damascus, etc. In 684 a Dome of 
the Rock was built to cover the holy stone, on which it 
was believed Abraham offered his son and later the altar of 
burnt offerings stood. Many Moslem legends connected 
this rock with the alleged night visit of the Prophet to 
Jerusalem. In 691 a.d. the Omayyed caliph Abd el-Melek 
in Damascus, desiring a pilgrimage site to offset those at 
Mecca and Medina, which were in the possession of his 
rival caliph Abdullah, erected the beautiful “ Dome of the 
Rock,” which stands to this day as one of the triumphs of 
Moslem art. 29 

In 750 the caliphate was transferred from Damascus 
to Baghdad, where a half century later the caliph Haroun 
er-Rashid of the Abbassid dynasty in his correspondence 
with the emperor Charlemagne gave his permission for the 
rebuilding of the ravaged Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
and other sacred buildings in Jerusalem. 

Nothing illustrates more forcibly the varied fortunes 
and misfortunes of Jerusalem and Palestine as a whole than 
the fact that in 930 a.d. the Carmathians sacked Mecca, over¬ 
ran Palestine, and destroyed the chief structures of Jeru¬ 
salem, including the Holy Sepulchre. Hardly had the city 
recovered from this visitation when Ikhshid, the Turkish 
governor in Egypt and Syria, led a force against Jerusalem, 
massacred the Christians there, and burned the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre, just rising from its ashes. This was 

29 The name “ Mosque of Omar ” is often applied to this building, but 
without warrant. It has none of the properties of a mosque. 


—49 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


in 934 a.d. Two years later the Fatimite partisans in Cairo 
declared their independence of the caliph, and brought 
Palestine again under Egyptian control. This authority 
continued until 1012 when the mad Hakim, Amr Allah, 
the founder of the Druse sect, instituted a campaign of per¬ 
secution against the Christians and their holy places, in 
which Jerusalem again suffered partial destruction. 

During these years of Moslem dominance, the capital 
was at Ramlah, not at Jerusalem. Meantime pilgrims both 
Jewish and Christian made their way from Europe to the 
sacred places of their religions, often suffering great hard¬ 
ships and sometimes death at the hands of pagans and Mos¬ 
lems. The anchorites who made their homes in the wadis 
of the Jordan and the Dead Sea likewise suffered persecution 
and even martyrdom. Travelers told of outrages perpetrated 
on pilgrims and hermits. In 796 a.d. the monks at Mar 
Saba fell victims to the number of hundreds to the savagery 
of the Bedouins. In these years the Seljukian Turks, a race 
of Mongol origin but gradually converted to the Moslem 
faith, were pushing to the west. In 1077 a.d. these fierce 
tribesmen took Jerusalem and pillaged it. It seemed as if 
the whole eastern world were turning to the crescent and 
the fortunes of the cross were at stake. The conversion and 
westward thrust of the Turks had brought a revival to 
Islam. Europe was believed to be in danger from these 
aggressions. The Holy Land was in the hands of the in¬ 
fidel. Spain had yielded to Moorish conquest. Sicily was 
a Moslem land. The holy places were in reproach. The 
sepulchre of Jesus was scorned. The penitents who sought 
to atone for their sins by the pilgrimage were subjected to 


50 — 




Palestine 


ill usage, and compelled to pay heavy tolls as the price of 
their journey. Many of them lost their lives. 

The stories of these events stirred the souls of many in 
Christian Europe. As early as 1064 a company had gone 
out from Germany to rescue the Holy Land. The Roman 
church was besought by the Greek emperor at Constanti¬ 
nople to take action in the crisis. There were many motives 
that might well prompt the pope to this course. Among 
them were the desire to recover the lost areas of the east to 
the church; the possibility of turning multitudes to the faith 
of Jesus; and the offering of a worthy cause to the manhood 
of Europe, to arouse it from its lethargy and its vices. The 
result of all these complex interests of the time was the 
crusades, that series of romantic, chivalric, militant, politi¬ 
cal, religious, sublime, selfish, tragic and futile enterprises 
which kept Europe in a fever of excitement for two cen¬ 
turies, drained away half its wealth and a great portion of 
its strength, and left behind, along with some advantages, a 
trail of hatreds, international misunderstandings and world¬ 
liness from which another two centuries were required for 
its recovery. 

Pope Urban II preached a sermon at Clermont in the 
south of France in 1095 which sounded the summons to the 
First Crusade. The response was instant and widespread. 
The stories and preaching of Peter of Amiens, known as 
Peter the Hermit, deepened the enthusiasm. Strips of cloth 
in the form of the cross were sewn on the garments of those 
who enlisted. “ It is the will of God ” (Deus vult) was the 
watchword of the hour. Men, women and children of every 
class joined the movement, and started eastward under many 

-51- 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


kinds of leadership. Strangely enough the first attacks were 
made not upon the Moslems of Palestine but upon the Jews 
of Europe. In cities along the Rhine at least ten thousand 
of these unfortunate people were massacred. Thousands of 
these crusaders pushed on through eastern Europe under 
leaders like Peter and Walter the Penniless, pillaging and 
plundering as they went, with no adequate leadership or 
organization. Their ranks were thinned by sickness, starva¬ 
tion and the attacks of the exasperated peoples through 
whose lands they passed, and hardly a skeleton of the body 
that left the west reached Constantinople. 

A more orderly force followed. These were the men- 
at-arms who were recruited by such leaders as Godfrey de 
Bouillon, Baldwin his brother, Tancred, Duke Robert of 
Normandy, Count Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond and 
Stephen of Blois. This body reached Constantinople where 
they found the remnants of the earlier advance. To the 
cultured Greeks of the Byzantine capital these crusaders 
from the west seemed barbarians in their manners and cul¬ 
ture, and they were glad to be rid of them. They aided them 
with guides and gold. After victories at Nicea and Dory- 
leum, the crusaders reached Jerusalem in 1099, and took the 
city by assault after a brief siege. There was a terrible mas¬ 
sacre of the citizens, ten thousand of whom are said to have 
been slaughtered on the temple area. The mosques were 
transformed into churches. The Dome of the Rock was 
consecrated as a church, with the name of the “ Temple of 
the Lord,” and a guard was appointed for it from among 
Godfrey’s knights, who from this assignment assumed the 
designation of Knights Templar. By this time it was appar- 


-52 — 




Palestine 


ent that most of the leaders were more concerned to secure 
for themselves sections of the east than to rescue the Holy 
Sepulchre. Baldwin had designs on Edessa, which were later 
realized. Tancred and Bohemond were rivals for the pos¬ 
session of Antioch. Raymond of Toulouse coveted Tripoli. 
The rivalries of these and other leaders did much to limit 
the glory and the success of the adventure. 

Jerusalem was made the capital of a Latin kingdom, 
and Godfrey, refusing the title of king, was elected “ Advo¬ 
cate of the Holy Sepulchre.” It was unfortunate that this 
most knightly of the crusader chieftains lived but a few 
months; but he did much in the meantime to organize the 
kingdom which endured for 88 years, and to provide it with 
suitable laws. He died in noo a.d. and his body was buried 
in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. His sword is still dis¬ 
played in the Latin sacristy there. His brother Baldwin was 
brought from Edessa to be his successor, and was crowned 
as the first king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity 
in Bethlehem on Christmas Day, iioi. 30 There followed a 
period of comparative peace. The Moslems were divided 
by sect rivalries. The borders of the Latin kingdom were 
extended until it reached from Beirut on the north to Wadi 
Arish on the south, and eastward beyond the Jordan. The 

30 The kings of Jerusalem were chosen from the family of Baldwin, either 
through direct descent, or through inheritance by marriage, the widow of a king 
conveying the crown to a second husband or to her children. A partial list is 
as follows: Baldwin I, brother of Godfrey (1101-1118); Baldwin II, de Burgh, 
nephew (1118-1131); Fulke of Anjou, husband of a daughter of Baldwin II 
(1131-1143); Baldwin III, son (1143-1162); Amalric I, brother (1162-1174); 
Baldwin IV, son (1174-1185); Baldwin V, grandson of Baldwin III (1186); 
Guy de Lusignan, husband of Sibylla, daughter of Baldwin III (1186-1192); 
Conrad of Montferrat, son-in-law of Amalric I (1192); Henry of Champagne, 
son-in-law of Amalric I (1192-1197); Amalric II, brother of Guy de Lusignan, 
king of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1197-1205); etc. 


—53— 






The Jew Through the Centuries 

various chiefs were engaged principally in strengthening 
their own territorial holdings, and erecting their castles. 

The two orders of chivalry attained large areas and 
great wealth. The knights of the Hospital arose as pro¬ 
moters of the hospice service established as early as 800 a.d. 
by the emperor Charlemagne, and enlarged by the mer¬ 
chants of Amalfi in Italy, who in 1030 built their hospice 
for pilgrims and the sick in the Muristan, near the Sepulchre. 
When Jerusalem was taken by the crusaders in 1099 the 
order of Knights Hospitallars, or Knights of St. John (the 
Baptist) was founded, and grew into great importance dur¬ 
ing the following years. 31 They wore the white cross. The 
Templars, founded in 1118, whose symbol was the red cross, 
likewise grew into a powerful order, with castles and other 
properties. 32 The two orders the Templars and the Hos- 

31 When the crusaders were finally driven from Palestine in 1291 they 
occupied Rhodes and later, in 1530, Malta, from which latter fact the Knights 
of Malta derived their name. 

32 The crusading castles were among the most remarkable structures ever 
erected in Palestine, both in number and strength. Some of them were private 
strongholds, the residence of a local lord, but most of them were built as fortresses 
for the protection of the kingdom, and as headquarters of the three great orders, 
the Templars, the Hospitallars and the Teutonic Knights, organized in 1190. 
Among them may be mentioned the castle of Raymond of St. Gilles, Count of 
Tripoli, later called by the Arabs Sinjil; the castle of Baldwin, called by the 
natives Bardawil; Belfort, a Templar stronghold on a spur of the Lebanons, 
1500 feet above the Litany, whose ruins are still impressive. In a siege of the 
place Reginald of Sidon, Lord of Belfort, was captured and bound on a cross 
outside the walls, from which to the astonishment of the besiegers he exhorted his 
men inside the castle not to surrender. Other notable castles of crusading days 
were Belvoir, Mirabel, Blanche Garde (Tell es-Safi, Gath), Mont Gisart (on the 
site of ancient Gezer), Chastel Rouge, near Nebi Musa, Kerek of the Desert, east 
of the Dead Sea, Mont Real, south of the Dead Sea, Gibalin (Beit Jibrin), Belmont 
(Suba), Ibalin (Jamnia), Chateau Pelerin (Athlit), Montfort, belonging to the 
Teutonic order, besides castles at Tiberias, Safed, Banias, Bethulia, Ahamant, 
above Wadi Musa, and Jebail (Byblos). The two most impressive present-day 
survivals from crusading times are Marghab (“ the Watcher ”) near Homs, and 
the Krak des Chevaliers above Tripoli, both strongholds of the Hospitallars. 


54 





Palestine 


pitallars were the chief commercial as well as military bodies 
in Palestine. They carried on extensive banking enterprises 
with the cities of Europe, and secured from the kings large 
concessions in the form of remitted taxes, trading quarters 
and other advantages. They controlled the caravan routes, 
and collected toll from passing merchants. The crusades 
were not merely a series of military expeditions that can be 
numbered and arranged in order. 33 During all the days of 
the Latin kingdom and even more in later years, immigra¬ 
tion from Europe was constant. Fleets from Venice, Genoa, 
and other Italian ports brought not only pilgrims and cru¬ 
saders, but provisions as well. The Frank or western popu¬ 
lation of Palestine increased constantly, and became a recog¬ 
nized element in the land. 

The Second Crusade was launched in 1146. It was the 
result of the fall of Edessa which was taken by the Turks un¬ 
der Zengi two years before. It was proclaimed under papal 
authority by the powerful preacher, St. Bernard of Clair- 
veaux, and was undertaken by Conrad III of Germany and 
Louis VII of France. An unsuccessful attack was made on 
Damascus, and the campaign collapsed in 1148. And now 
appeared the most significant figure of the crusades, the 
Moslem chief who closed the first chapter of the war with 
the tragedy of Hattin, and ushered in the second. The 
Moslems, who had been divided and ineffective in the days 
of Godfrey and the first Baldwins, were now united under 

33 In addition to the eight crusades usually enumerated there were many 
others of less importance, such as that of the Venetians in 1123-4; Henry the 
Lion, 1172; Simon de Montfort, the Albigensian Crusade, 1208, one of the most 
discreditable chapters in history; Edward I of England, 1271-2; the Shepherds 
Crusade; the Baltic Crusade, and others. In fact there was hardly a year in 
which some expedition did not go out in some direction, with a crusading purpose. 


- 55 - 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the famous leader Saladin (Salah ed-Din). When he was 
born in 1137 the Franks, as the crusaders were called, held 
Antioch, Edessa, Tripoli, Sidon, Tyre, Acre and Jerusalem. 
There was a fairly friendly feeling between the two groups, 
the result of years of comparative peace. Saladin by his 
abilities secured the control of Syria, the former domain of 
Nur ed-Din, the son of Zengi, in 1174, with its capital at 
Damascus; and of Egypt, where he first made himself vizier 
in 1169 and caliph in 1171. He was thus able to unite the 
forces of Islam in the entire near east. He established his 
gorgeous court at Damascus, and from that center prepared 
to drive the Christian invaders from the land. 

He was defeated by the Christian forces under Bald¬ 
win at Ramlah in 1177, but in the following year gained a 
victory over them near Banias. A truce was concluded for 
two years, which was carefully observed by Saladin, but 
more than once violated by the crusaders. Meantime the 
Latin kingdom increasingly suffered under weak and in¬ 
efficient rulers. Baldwin IV was a boy and a leper. He 
died in 1185. His little nephew, Baldwin V, died in the fol¬ 
lowing year. Guy de Lusignan, the second husband of 
Sibylla, daughter of Amalric I, was an outsider and was 
cordially disliked and distrusted by the other chiefs. It was 
easy to discern the rising tide of danger around the king¬ 
dom. Appeals for help were sent to Europe by the patri¬ 
arch of Jerusalem and the grand masters of the crusading 
orders. It was none too soon. Saladin, aroused by breaches 
of the truce, proclaimed the “ Jihad,” the holy war, and with 
a spirit as vigorous as that which animated the first crusaders, 
the Turks began operations. A force of Templars and Hos- 

— 56— 





Palestine 


pitallars was defeated and destroyed near Tiberias, and on 
July 4, 1187, the army of king Guy, 20,000 in number, was 
surrounded at the Horns of Hattin and practically annihi¬ 
lated. Count Raymond of Tripoli cut his way through to 
Tyre. The king was held prisoner. Saladin executed the 
master of the Templars and many others. This defeat broke 
the Christian power in Palestine. The conquest of Jerusalem 
followed in September after a two-week siege. None of the 
cruelties committed by the army of Godfrey on the citizens 
of Jerusalem were permitted by Saladin. He treated his 
captives with great magnanimity, even paying the ransoms 
of many who were too poor to purchase their own liberty. 
The Latin kingdom was now at an end after eighty-eight 
years. Of all the places taken by the crusaders only Tyre, 
Tripoli and Marghab were left. 

The news of this disaster shocked all Europe and aroused 
a fresh sense of responsibility for the Sepulchre of the Lord. 
The result was the projection of the Third Crusade. 
Conrad of Montferrat led out a body of crusaders who 
arrived at Tyre three weeks after the battle of Hattin, and 
saved that city. His earnest appeals were heard in Germany, 
France and England. Philip Augustus of France, Henry II 
of England, and Frederick I, Barbarossa, of Germany took 
the vow to go to the aid of the distressed Christians in the 
Holy Land. A tax called “ Saladin’s tithe ” was laid on the 
territories of the church of Rome. Frederick lost his life 
near Tarsus. Richard I, Coeur de Lion, who took the place 
of his father Henry, after wintering in Sicily and Cyprus, 
reached Acre, where Philip Augustus had already arrived. 
After much disputation and misunderstanding between the 


57 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


crusading forces, Acre was taken in 1191, and its fall was 
attended with incredible cruelties, in which the worst quali¬ 
ties of Richard’s erratic and ferocious nature were exhibited. 
Philip returned to France, but Richard remained in Pales¬ 
tine, fighting with astonishing courage at Arsuf and Jaffa. 
In negotiations with Saladin, Richard demanded the sur¬ 
render of Jerusalem but this was refused. 34 Richard led his 
army as far as Nebi Samwil, from which Jerusalem could 
be seen, and then to the astonishment of all, returned to 
the coast. 35 He concluded a truce of three years with Sala¬ 
din, and sailed on his unhappy journey for England, only to 
meet misfortune, arrest and imprisonment on the way. The 
Third Crusade (1189-1193) had thus failed in all its objec¬ 
tives, and had only added a sinister chapter to crusading his¬ 
tory. 36 Saladin died in the same year that saw the close of 
this crusade, and is buried in a beautiful marble tomb near 
the great mosque, once the church of St. John, in Damascus. 

The remaining years of crusading effort were marked 
by both wisdom and folly, piety and crime, success and 
failure, enthusiasm and despair. 37 The final scenes were 

34 Saladin’s reply was, “ Jerusalem belongs to us as much as to you, and 
is more precious in our eyes than in yours, for it was the place of our Prophet’s 
journey, and the place where the angels gathered. Therefore do not imagine 
that we shall give the city up to you, or that we shall suffer ourselves to be per¬ 
suaded in the matter. As regards the land, it belonged originally to us, and you 
came to attack us.” (Rosebault, Saladin, p. 281.) 

35 The height was called by the crusaders “ Mons Gaudi ” (“ the moun¬ 
tain of joy ”) as the point from which the first view of the city was obtained. 
Richard was reported to have fallen on his knees and cried, “ Oh Lord God, I 
pray that I may never see thy holy city if so be that I may not rescue it from the 
hand of thy enemies.” 

36 Richard sold Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan, and the city of Famagusta 
became a retreat for Knights Templars who were forced out of Palestine, and 
the seat of the Lusignan kings for several generations. 

37 The Fourth Crusade (1198-1204) was completely diverted from its 

-58- 





Palestine 


the hopeless contests of the Christian forces with the re¬ 
doubtable Baibars, the Mamaluke sultan of Egypt, the stern¬ 
est and most fanatical of all the Moslem leaders. He swore 
that he would sweep all the invaders from the land. A 
raid of the Kharasmians, fierce Tatars from east of the Cas¬ 
pian, who invaded Palestine in 1244 slaughtering Christians 
and Moslems alike, compelled these two to unite for once 
in common defense. 38 In the battle of Gaza the invaders 
were defeated, but the Christian knights died almost to a 
man, and their cause in the land was given its death blow. 
Baibars had determined to destroy all the crusader castles, 
and this he proceeded to do. One after another they were 
demolished or dismantled — Caesarea, Arsuf, Safed, Jaffa, 
Belfort, Antioch, Krak des Chevaliers, Montfort. The only 
fortresses left were Marghab, Tortosa, Sidon, Tyre, Athlit 
and Acre,.and these were gradually given up until only 
Acre was left, a forlorn rallying point for the surviving 


purpose, and turned by the clever Henry Dandolo, doge of Venice, into a com¬ 
mercial campaign against Constantinople. The so-called “ Children’s Crusade ” 
(1212-1213) was a pitiful adventure, in which an army of youths was delivered 
by fanatics and scoundrels to the slave markets of the levant. The Fifth Crusade 
was promoted by pope Innocent III, but succeeded only in taking Damietta in 
Egypt. The Sixth (1227-1240) was really a contest between pope Gregory IX and 
the emperor Frederick II, who was placed under ban, but actually reached Pales¬ 
tine, and through clever diplomacy was made king of Jerusalem. The Seventh was 
sponsored by pope Innocent IV, and was chiefly a fruitless campaign of St. Louis 
of France in Egypt, whose losses and horrors were relieved in a measure by the 
presence and kindly ministries of St. Francis of Assisi. He is even said to have 
visited the Moslem camp and preached before Malek-Kamel, son of Saladin, and 
sultan of Cairo. This is the theme of Giotto’s frescoes in Santa Croce at Florence, 
“ Francis before the Soldan.” The Eighth and last of the crusades was a futile 
expedition of St. Louis against Tunis, where this devoted but unwarlike monarch 
died in 1270. 

38 The Kharasmians plundered Jerusalem, scattered the bones of Godfrey 
and Baldwin, who had been buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and 
burned the church. 


—59 







The Jew Through the Centuries 


warriors from the west. The fall of Acre came in 1291, and 
the last of the crusaders departed from Palestine, to find 
haven in Cyprus, in Rhodes, in Malta, or in Europe. 

Rut they left behind them the memorials of their dis¬ 
astrous adventure. The ruins of their castles were every¬ 
where to be seen, and some few were left fairly intact. 
Many of their churches remained, wholly or in part — at 
Nazareth, Samaria (where they believed John the Baptist 
was buried), Bireh, Bethlehem, Ramlah, Hebron, Tabor, 
Tyre (where Frederick Barbarossa was interred) and Jeru¬ 
salem. Other remains of their occupation are found in 
Acre, Caesarea, Bethany, etc. But there were many other 
reminders of the two centuries of warfare. An entire popu¬ 
lation had moved from Europe into the land, intermarried 
with the native people, and had no desire to leave. Those 
who returned carried with them the inevitable consequences 
of their experience — the moral and physical disintegration 
of war and camp life, the diseases which afflicted Europe for 
generations, and the hatreds against Jew and Moslem which 
have never been wholly effaced. 

There were commercial advantages and losses. Trade 
was promoted between the east and west, and maritime ad¬ 
venture was stimulated. Many of the commodities of the 
levant were introduced into Europe — rhubarb, sugar, rice, 
artichokes, lemons. Many Arabic words came into western 
vocabularies — admiral, alcohol, alfalfa, alkali, algebra, azi¬ 
muth, etc. The masonic and fraternal bodies of modern 
times grew out of the crusading orders. Medicine, navi¬ 
gation, architecture and many forms of literary activity were 
promoted. Relics of many sorts were brought back from 

— 60 — 




Palestine 


the east, especially the bones of saints. 39 Honors were show¬ 
ered upon the men who returned victorious from Palestine. 
But most who went out never returned, and many of those 
who did became outlaws, adventurers or mendicants, a lia¬ 
bility to the regions they infested. The Roman church and 
the crusading orders profited extensively from the holy 
wars, 40 but civilization, in spite of some advantageous by¬ 
products from the adventure, was set back a century or more. 

The story of Palestine since can be put in brief form. 
Nothing comparable to the Moslem conquest of the seventh 
century and the crusades of the eleventh to the thirteenth 
occurred until the days of the World War and the deliver¬ 
ance of the land from Turkish control. 

In 1402 Tamerlane, the earth-shaking Mongol, laid 
Palestine waste in the course of his campaign against the 
sultan Bajazed, who was defeated and made prisoner at 
the battle of Angora. In 1516 the Ottoman Turks under 

39 The passion to possess relics as the peculiar treasure of western churches 
led to almost unbelievable acts of vandalism. Particularly was this the case at the 
sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. Such relics as the skulls and other 
bones of holy men, particularly apostles, the cup called the Holy Grail, the 
sacred lance, and innumerable fragments of the true cross, were the objects of 
whole bodies of tradition developed in the various centers of Christendom. The 
house of the Virgin was believed to have been miraculously transported from 
Nazareth to Loretto to preserve it from desecration at the hands of Moslems. 
The sword with which Peter cut off the ear of the servant in Gethsemane is 
treasured in the cathedral at Palermo — and the ear with it! One church boasts 
of a vial containing some of the darkness of the seventh plague of Egypt! The 
age of the crusades was fertile soil for such legends. St. George, the Christian 
knight, whose exploits were a tradition of the age, became the patron saint of 
England, Portugal and Aragon. 

40 The church in gifts of land, the mortgaging of estates to secure funds 
for equipment, in money raised as contributions for the crusades, and in the 
sale of exemptions from crusade duties; the orders, particularly the Templars, 
by such increase of wealth and power as made them formidable rivals of the 
governments of Europe, and led at last to their suppression. 

— 6l — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


sultan Selim conquered the Mamaluke rulers of the country, 
and a year later became masters of Egypt as well. Selim 
was followed by his son, Suleman the Magnificent, whose 
long and prosperous rule (1520-1566) was an era of culture 
and expansion. He pushed the boundaries of the Turkish 
empire far into Europe. He rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem 
in 1542, the latest of many of its fortifications, and repaired 
the Dome of the Rock. 

The next event of world interest was the invasion of 
Palestine by Napoleon, who dreamed of a great empire in 
Asia, and having won a victory over the Mamalukes at the 
battle of the Pyramids in Egypt, pushed on into Syria. He 
made his headquarters at Ramlah, took Jaffa in 1799, and 
massacred 4000 prisoners, but lost a large portion of his 
army by the plague, and was compelled by the combined 
British and Turkish forces to abandon his project. 

Early in the nineteenth century there was a movement 
of Druses from the Lebanon region to the Mt. Carmel dis¬ 
trict, but later most of them departed to the Hauran and 
the Druze mountain, although some villages remain on 
Mt. Carmel. 

In 1831 Mohammad Ali, Turkish governor of Egypt, 
freeing himself from the authority of the sultan at Con¬ 
stantinople, conquered Palestine, which thus again came 
under the dominion of Egypt. Later the peasantry of the 
country revolted and Jerusalem was taken, but Ibrahim 
Pasha, son of Mohammad Ali, regained Palestine and Syria 
and held them for several years until driven out by the 
combined forces of Great Britain and Austria. In 1841 the 
European powers restored Palestine to Turkey, and it con- 

—62— 




Palestine 


tinued under this regime until the World War. In 1851, 
the question of the guardianship of the holy places in Jeru¬ 
salem and Bethlehem was the subject of rivalry between 
France and Russia, and this reached a degree of bitterness 
which led to the Crimean War in 1853. In 1891 the emperor 
William II of Germany visited Jerusalem and a section of 
the city wall adjacent to the Jaffa Gate was removed in his 
honor and for his entry into the city. In the following 
year the Jaffa-Jerusalem railroad, the first of the Palestinian 
railways, was put in operation, largely as a German enter¬ 
prise. 

Due to the friendly relations between Germany and 
Turkey, and the number of commercial projects undertaken 
by Germans in Palestine and the near east, notably the 
Baghdad railway, Turkey entered the World War on the 
side of the central powers, and its military and naval forces 
were placed under German direction. This fact involved 
Palestine, and one of the most significant engineering proj¬ 
ects of the war was the construction by the British of the 
railroad line from Kantara on the Suez Canal to Gaza, and 
ultimately to Ludd and Haifa, together with the pipe line 
which supplied the workers and troops with water from the 
Nile. The supply of allied forces over this line, aided by the 
Arab camel corps organized and led by Thomas Lawrence, 
enabled General Allenby to complete the conquest of Pales¬ 
tine, and on Dec. 9,1917, Izzat Bey, the Turkish civil gover¬ 
nor, surrendered Jerusalem, at Romema, a suburb west of the 
city. Two days later the allied troops entered through the 
Jaffa Gate to complete the bloodless occupation of the city 
which has perhaps witnessed more bloodshed than any other 

-63- 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


spot on the planet. The Turks made a vigorous but futile 
attempt to retake Jerusalem on December 29. The final 
victory over the German-Turkish troops in Palestine was 
gained at Megiddo, the great battlefield of Palestine. In 
recognition of his conduct of the Palestine campaign General 
Allenby was made Field Marshal Viscount Allenby of 
Megiddo and Felixtowe. Thus ended four centuries of 
Turkish and thirteen of Moslem control of the Holy Land. 

The problem of British administration in Palestine has 
been complicated by two apparently contradictory official 
commitments made to Arabs and Jews respectively. In 
1915 Sir Henry McMahon, consular representative of the 
British government at Cairo, gave assurance to the Arab 
chiefs of the east-Jordan and Sinai regions that the Arab 
projects of independence, self-determination and territorial 
possession, in which Palestine was included, should be real¬ 
ized on the successful completion of the war. It was this 
pledge which enabled Lawrence to rally the Arabs to General 
Allenby’s assistance, in delivering Palestine from Turkish 
control. 

On November 2, 1917, Lord Balfour, British foreign 
minister, made a declaration in a letter to Lord Rothschild, 
to the effect that — “ His Majesty’s government view with 
favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for 
the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facili¬ 
tate the achievement of this object, it being clearly under¬ 
stood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the 
civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities 
in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by 
Jews in any other country.” In 1920 the treaty of Sevres 

-64- 




Palestine 


gave the mandate for Palestine, Transjordania and Iraq to 
Great Britain and that of Syria to France. On July i of that 
year, the civil administration of Palestine succeeded the mili¬ 
tary power. A High Commissioner was appointed in the 
person of the Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert Samuel. On July 24, 
1922, the League of Nations confirmed the mandates. 
Neither Arabs nor Zionists, however, have been satisfied 
with the situation. Each party has demanded the fulfil¬ 
ment of the promises made to it, and charged the British 
administration with failure to comply with its pledges. The 
controversy came to sharp issue in the incident of the Wail¬ 
ing Wall on August 29, 1929, in which several casualties 
occurred and bitter feelings between Zionists and Arabs led 
to bloodshed in other places. The government is placed in 
the unhappy position of commitment to quite contradictory 
promises. In the nature of the case the outcome will be 
a compromise, but time alone can determine its nature, or 
the events that may take place meantime. Various commis¬ 
sions have reported on the problem, none of them to the 
satisfaction of either of the claimants. The troubles of Pal¬ 
estine are not yet at an end. 41 

Mention should be made of the towns and cities in 
Palestine which have had an important part in its history 
during successive periods. Among those belonging to Old 
Testament days were: Beersheba, Hebron, Bethlehem, Je¬ 
rusalem, Jericho, Gaza, Joppa, Bethel, Shiloh, Shechem, 
Samaria, Beth-Shan, Megiddo, Jezreel, Tyre, Sidon and Dan. 

In New Testament and Herodian times most of these 
remained, although in several instances their names were 

41 See chapters XI, XII, pages 314, 344. 

-65- 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


changed in honor of some notable (usually Roman) char¬ 
acter, and new cities were built. Among those most familiar 
may be mentioned Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Bethany, 
Jericho, Bethel, Lydda, Jamnia, Gaza, Askalon, Joppa, An- 
tipatris, Caesarea, Ptolemais, Sabaste (Samaria), Scythopolis 
(Beth-Shan), Nazareth, Sepphoris, Capernaum, Tiberias, 
Tarachae, Safed, Pella, Gadara, Hippos, Gerasa, Philadel¬ 
phia, Tyre, Sidon, Caesarea-Philippi, and the fortresses of 
Hyrcanium, Alexandrium, Machaerus, Masada and Hero- 
dium. Many of these cities survived during the period of 
the crusades, and others, chiefly fortresses built by the 
knights, have been mentioned in connection with that 
age. 

Modern Palestine has towns and cities which belong to 
all these periods, and many others which represent more re¬ 
cent enterprises, such as the Zionist colonies. The more 
familiar names at the present time are Beersheba, El-Arish, 
Gaza, Jaffa (Joppa), Ludd (Lydda), Ramlah, Jerusalem, 
Jericho, Es-Salt, Amman (Philadelphia), Jerash (Gerasa), 
Kerek, Nablous (Neapolis, Shechem), Haifa, Acre (Ptole¬ 
mais), Tyre, Sidon, Nazareth, Tiberias, Safed, Banias (Caesa¬ 
rea-Philippi). Among Zionist colonies, some of which are 
towns or villages and some agricultural settlements, the fol¬ 
lowing may be named: Tel-Aviv, Rischon le Zion, Mikweh 
Israel, Talpioth, Rosh Pinah, Artuf, Romema, Beth Haka- 
rim, Kirya-Samwil, Ain Harod, Affuleh, Balfouria, Migdol, 
Metullah. 

The German Templar colonies near Haifa, in Jerusalem 
and at Waldheim, are agricultural and missionary in pur¬ 
pose. Several missionary societies, Greek, Latin and Protes- 

— 66 — 




Palestine 


tant, maintain churches, schools, hospitals, hospices and 
other religious agencies. Moslem mosques and schools are 
found in most towns. The Bahais have a sizable colony at 
Haifa. Probably the most interesting and historic small 
group is that of the Samaritans, now hardly more than a 
hundred in number, who live in a section of Nablous, and 
maintain an ancient synagogue under their high priest, 
Khaim Ishak, who claims descent from the classic priest¬ 
hood of Israel. 

Archaeological research in Palestine, long hindered by 
unfavorable governmental conditions under Turkish rule, 
has been prosecuted with fresh enthusiasm under the British 
mandate since the World War. To the older “ finds ” such 
as the Madeba Map, the Moabite Stone, the Siloam Inscrip¬ 
tion, the Warning Stone, etc., have been added many inter¬ 
esting and valuable materials excavated by the Palestine 
Exploration Fund, Harvard University, Yale University, the 
University of Pennsylvania, the Oriental Institute of the 
University of Chicago, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 
the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, the 
Pacific Theological Seminary, the British School of Archae¬ 
ology, the German Oriental Society, the ficole Biblique of 
the Dominican Fathers of Jerusalem, and several other agen¬ 
cies, institutional and private. Sites of interest which have 
been excavated in part or wholly are Jerusalem, Gezer, Sa¬ 
maria, Beisan (Beth-Shan, Scythopolis), Tell Hum (Caper¬ 
naum), Armageddon (Megiddo), Jericho, Beit Jibrin, Ain 
Shems (Beth Shemesh), Tell el-Ful (Gibeah of Saul), Beitin 
(Bethel), Seilun (Shiloh), Tell en-Nasbeh (Mizpah or Bee- 
roth), Tell el-Hesy (Lachish or Eglon), Jerash (Gerasa), 

— 67— 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


and Amman (Rabbath-Ammon, Philadelphia). A number 
of the identifications are as yet tentative. The skull of the 
so-called “ Galilee Man,” a fragment from prehistoric times, 
was found in a cavern near Tiberias. The work of scientific 
excavation and research in Palestine is as yet in its infancy, 
and much more important discoveries are likely to be made 
in the future. Even a casual inspection of the country reveals 
almost numberless “tells” or mounds which appear to be 
the sites of ancient cities, and are likely to prove of value to 
the archaeologist and the historian. The new archaeological 
museum erected outside the north-east corner of the city wall 
of Jerusalem through the generosity of Mr. John D. Rocke¬ 
feller, Jr., will safeguard the hitherto endangered fruits of 
excavation imperiled by the four kinds of destroyers —war, 
earthquake, the natives, and the souvenir hunters — and will 
stimulate fresh activity in biblical research. 

Palestine will continue through the years to hold the 
interest and attract the attention of the world. It is a land 
sacred to four faiths — Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and the 
Samaritans. It is the land from which have sprung the great 
ideas, literatures and personalities of religion — the wor¬ 
ship of the one God, an ethical and imageless faith, a scrip¬ 
ture that has become the classic of the race, and a group of 
prophets and teachers who have set the patterns of belief and 
conduct for half mankind. To it pilgrims, missionaries, 
ministers, rabbis, priests, teachers, students and travelers 
from every land have gone and will continue to go in even 
greater numbers. In its soil uncounted thousands have been 
buried as the happy consummation of a life pilgrimage, and 
untold measures of that soil have been brought to furnish 

-68- 




Palestine 


the camposantas of Europe and to hallow the graves of the 
devout in every land. 

Different emotions are evoked by a visit to Palestine, de¬ 
pending on the education, experience and interest of the 
visitor. There are those who are wholly disillusioned by 
the contrast between the measurable order and convenience 
of Europe and America and the discomfort, filth, fanaticism, 
religious rivalry and commercialism encountered in the 
Holy Land. On the other hand there are those who bring 
with them a high and romantic enthusiasm which renders 
them oblivious to all but the ideal and emotional values of 
the experience. They want to believe all that is told them 
regarding places and events in that land, and are unmoved 
by discords and discomforts that distress the comfort-loving 
tourist. To them Palestine remains the land of song and 
story, the lovely earthly symbol of the heavenly “ land of 
pure delight.” 

To those, however, who go to Palestine with a reason¬ 
ably prepared mind it brings neither of these impressions. 
They are not surprised by the poverty, the filth, the lack 
of conveniences and the presence of discomforts which are 
likely to confront any who journey in the orient. They 
know that Palestine has suffered from almost every evil 
which can afflict a country, war, pestilence, earthquake, de¬ 
forestation, misrule, ignorance, superstition and all the ills 
that distress a plundered and exploited land. They know 
that, notwithstanding these facts, it has played one of the 
most remarkable iroles in history. It was the land in which 
prophets, priests, wise men and poets lived and found in¬ 
spiration for their messages. It was the land in which Jesus 

— 69 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


lived, which he loved, and by whose tragedies he was not 
disheartened. It has been the land of great ethical and re¬ 
ligious ideals, and is today the object of affection and hope. 
With all its limitations of size and resources, with all its 
tragedies of suffering and disappointment, Palestine is the 
most historic, eventful and beloved of areas, a land of hope 
and glory, made forever hallowed by the fact that “ over its 
acres walked those sacred feet which [twenty] centuries ago 
were nailed for our advantage to the bitter cross.” 


70 — 





II 

HEBREW ORIGINS 


At the time when Hebrew clans made their way into 
the hill country west of the Jordan sometime during the 
thirteenth century b.c. they found a numerous and diverse 
population, the result of many migrations and much ad¬ 
mixture of races. The writers of the late book of Numbers 
reported that the scouts sent to explore the country brought 
back the disquieting news that there were many strong 
peoples living there, and that its conquest was impossible. 
They said that Amalek dwelt in the land of the south, and 
the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite dwelt in the 
mountains, and the Canaanite dwelt by the sea and along by 
the side of Jordan. 1 Their picturesque phrase was that it 
was a land that “ ate up its inhabitants,” by which they ap¬ 
parently meant that one wave of population followed an¬ 
other, and all were at last mingled in a common mixture 
of stocks. 

The names by which the region was known make clear 
the diversity of its population. The common designation 
appears to have been “ Canaan ” in the practice of Old Testa¬ 
ment writers. If the ordinary view be accepted that this 
refers particularly to the lowlands of the coast and the Jordan 
trench, it may go back to an etymology not yet recovered, 
but accepted in the use of “Canaanite” for lowlander until 

1 Num. 13:29. 


—71 


The Jew Through the Centuries 


it faded out into the sense of trafficker or merchant. 2 The 
Canaanites appear to have entered the land in some earlier 
movement of Semites from Aram and the farther east, ac¬ 
companied perhaps by those who settled on the Phoenician 
coast, and founded Tyre and Sidon. 

Another name applied to the land was the “ hill country 
of the Amorites.” 3 This people is very often mentioned in 
the Hebrew records, and appears to designate a large pro¬ 
portion of the population, particularly those who occupied 
the mountain range that gave to the country its chief charac¬ 
teristic. Much study has been given to the origin and rela¬ 
tions of the Amorites, and the problem is still unsolved. 
But that they were a Semitic group from the north-east, and 
probably represent an earlier stratum of Palestinian popula¬ 
tion than the Canaanites, seems probable. Several of the 
Old Testament writers suggest the antiquity of their pres¬ 
ence in the land. Their connection with the Hyksos inva¬ 
sion of Egypt and the regime of the so-called “ shepherd 
kings ” is a plausible conjecture. If so, their failure in Baby¬ 
lonia was in a measure retrieved in the Delta. As repre¬ 
sented on the Egyptian monuments they had more of the 
characteristics of northern Europeans than of Semites, hav¬ 
ing long heads, blue eyes, yellow hair, straight noses and 
thin lips. At the time of the Hebrew arrival in Canaan, the 
Amorites held only a limited territory in the Lebanons, first 
under Egyptian and later Hittite overlords. Its capital was 
at Kadesh on the Orontes, and the last remnants of its power 

2 See Prov. 31:24; Ezek. 17:4; Hos. 12:7; Zeph. 1:11; in each of which 
passages the word “ Canaanite ” in the Hebrew is translated “ merchant,” or 
“ trafficker.” 

3 Num. 13:29; Deut. 1:7, 19, 20. 


—72— 




Hebrew Origins 


survived in Palestine in the two kingdoms on the east of 
the Jordan, those of Sihon of Heshbon and Og of Bashan. 4 

A people of later advent were the Hittites, who were 
found in a few scattered cantonments, or mixed with the 
other inhabitants in the early days of Hebrew history. The 
Hittite race in Asia Minor was seemingly composed of three 
elements: the Khattish tribes of the region who gave their 
name to history; the Indo-European invaders from the west, 
whose influence is dominant in the Hittite language; and 
the Syrian Khurri, or Hurri, who perhaps formed one of the 
elements in the Hyksos movement. Whether the Hittites 
who were found in Palestine in the days of the patriarchs 
and the early monarchy were of the amalgamated race or 
were fragments of the Khatti group can hardly be deter¬ 
mined. But the presence of “ children of Heth ” in Hebron 
in Abraham’s day, 5 and the important place of Hittites in 
David’s army, 6 together with the frequent inclusion of this 
people in the lists of races whom the Hebrews conquered, 
show the significance of this civilization in that period. 

That there were also remnants of still earlier invasions 
among the scattered settlements in Canaan appears evident 
from the lists of racial or regional peoples so frequently re¬ 
peated by the Hebrew chroniclers. The passages in which 
this nationalistic note of triumph is struck are sufficiently 
numerous to arrest the attention and excite the curiosity of 
the reader. Particularly are the Deuteronomists fond of run¬ 
ning over the names of the peoples overcome and slaugh¬ 
tered or absorbed by the Hebrew clans. Usually these lists 

4 Numbers, chapt. 21; Deut. 1:4. 6 1 Sam. 26:6; 2 Sam. 23:39. 

6 Gen. 23:3-20. 


—73— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


fall into groups of seven, and recite with true chauvinism such 
names as the Jebusites, Hivites, Perizzites, Horites, Rephaim, 
Avvim, Anakim, to say nothing of the more familiar Ca- 
naanites, Amorites and Hittites. 7 There is of course in 
these lists a curious and confused mingling of place names, 
clan names, racial designations and traditional and mytho¬ 
logical reference. For example the Jebusites owed their 
name to the locality of Jebus, later Jerusalem, and were prob¬ 
ably a Canaanite clan. One of their number sold land for 
a place of sacrifice to David, 8 and a census list in the book 
of Joshua speaks of their survival to that later time. 9 

The Horites have been thought to be the primitive cave- 
dwellers of the region, though the name may be a miswriting 
of Hivites, a petty people of central Palestine. The Perizzites 
were perhaps the villagers who lived in unwalled towns, or 
the name may have some connection with Girgashites, or 
Girzites, or even with Geshurites, and Gerizim, the sacred 
locality of the Samaritans. The Kenizzites, to which clan 
Caleb the leader of the tribe of Judah seems to have be¬ 
longed, 10 were probably an Edomite group; and the Kenites, 
of whom were Heber and his Hebrew wife Jael, 11 seem to 
have been connected with Midianite tribes, and to have come 
in like the Kenizzites with Judah. Of the Rephaim no ac¬ 
count can be given, save that they were reputed to be of 
gigantic size, as indeed were the Anakim, and other early 
inhabitants of the land. The tradition of giants in the earth 

7 Gen. 15:19-21; Ex. 3:8, 17; Deut. 7:1; 20:17; etc. 

8 2 Sam. 24:16, 18. 

9 Josh. 15:63. 

10 Josh. 15:17; Judg. 1:13. 

11 Judg. 4:17. 


—74— 




Hebrew Origins 


in earlier days is not an infrequent heritage of unlettered 
people, and may be traced to a variety of causes. 12 Often 
such tribal names are personalized, and a mythical ancestor 
is contrived, as in the case of the Anakim, who in some of the 
passages are called “ sons of Anak.” Of other groups, like 
the Avvim, perhaps a Bedawin sept, or the Emim, Zam- 
zummim, and the like, no satisfactory explanation has been 
given. 

Over the little land in which all these and other frag¬ 
ments of population were to be found, either persisting in 
se greg ate d communities or, as more commonly, fused into 
a fairly uniform type by the pressure of the dominant gov¬ 
ernmental units, by intermarriages between contiguous com¬ 
munities, and by the danger of isolation, two world civi¬ 
lizations held sway, one of them political and the other 
cultural. The first was Egypt, whose widely extended 
power to the north and east was now declining and whose 
officials in Syria were ineffectually importuning their Pha¬ 
raohs to send them aid to uphold the tottering fabric of con¬ 
trol. Egypt was still nominally the mistress of these lands 
to the north, and when certain Hebrew clans left the Delta 
for the desert and finally arrived in Canaan, they were only 
leaving one part of the empire for another. The Egyptian 
structures, monuments, statues and other remains now 
emerging from Palestinian soil are ample evidence of this 
fact. There must have been an Egyptian element, official 
and commercial, in the population of the country, and as 
the historic highway across the desert to and from Egypt 
was constantly traversed by dwellers in the Nile valley, 

12 Gen. 6:4; Deut. 2:11; 3:11; Amos 2:9. 

-75- 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


Egyptians, Nubians and men of other races, these southern¬ 
ers added constantly to the mixture of types in Canaan. 

The second of these dominant influences was Baby¬ 
lonian. The political mastery of the coastlands including 
Palestine was an event of the future, though there were raids 
into the Mediterranean region by invaders from the Eu¬ 
phrates in patriarchal days. 13 But the prevailing cultural 
authority was Babylonian. The fact that the correspond¬ 
ence carried on between the Egyptian rulers of the fourteenth 
century and their Syrian governors was in the cuneiform 
character and the language of Babylon gives evidence of the 
prevalence of Mesopotamian culture and religion through¬ 
out the near east and to the borders of Egypt. That there 
were Babylonians resident in the land, as well as Babylonian 
commodities in the markets, appears evident from the 
sources. 14 

Into this land, already well peopled by men of diverse 
races thus mingled in something of a common stock, and 
possessed of certain centers of relatively competent culture 
such as Shechem, Hebron and Jericho, Hebrew clans began 
to make their way as early as the fifteenth century b.c. Like 
many of their Semitic predecessors they came out of the east, 
from Aram and the farther reaches of Babylonia and north¬ 
ern Arabia. The fact that they crossed the great river 
into Canaan seems to have given them the name of foreign¬ 
ers, “ Hebrews,” the men who “ came over ” from beyond, 
though some have attempted to derive the name from a 
mythical progenator, Eber. 15 It is not improbable that the 

13 Genesis, chapt. 14. 

14 Josh. 7:21. 

15 Godbey, The Lost Tribes a Myth, pp. 38 ff., distinguishes between the 

—76— 




Hebrew Origins 


Semitic groups which settled on the east of the Jordan, such 
as Ammon, Moab and Edom, arrived about the same period 
as the Hebrews. Apparently the latter were not sufficiently 
numerous to disturb in any marked degree the population 
of the land. The traditions preserved by them connected 
certain patriarchal names with definite localities, as Abra¬ 
ham with Shechem and Hebron, Isaac with Beersheba and 
Jacob with Bethel. There were early and easy contacts with 
the people of the country. The Canaanite speech, customs 
and much of their religious cultus were absorbed by the 
newcomers, to whom the older inhabitants were glad to 
offer their hospitality and their alliances. That they were 
not at once lost in the life of the region speaks eloquently 
for the vigor of their immigrant stock and their capacity to 
begin a new chapter in clan history. 

The patriarchal narratives preserved among the He¬ 
brews make little of the idea of a separate and carefully 
guarded racial character among their people. The usual 
contacts, feuds, intermarriages, covenants and commercial 
dealings likely to prevail among neighbors were apparently 
the order of the time. 16 Nor was there any particular tend¬ 
ency to remain together. From the times of the first settle¬ 
ments the Hebrews moved easily and frequently into other 
areas. Echoes of this inclination are found in the records, 
usually in the form of individual adventures, but in reality 
carrying the implication of clan movements. Such de- 

“ Hebrews,” whom he regards as an element in the Phoenician population and 
culture of Canaan — deriving their names from the fact that to the tribes east 
of the Jordan they were the people “ over there,” i.e. between the river and the 
sea — and the much later Aramaic “ Israelites.” 

16 Genesis, chapt. 23; 26:34; chapt. 34; 41:45. 


—77— 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


partures into the desert regions south and east, the high¬ 
lands of Aram, Philistia and Moab, though represented as 
personal experiences of Hebrew leaders, certainly hint at 
more general and permanent removals. 17 

The most notable of these migrations was the one which 
took a considerable group into Egypt, always the granery 
and asylum of the peoples of Syria. This departure to the 
Nile land has been by some connected with the more gen¬ 
eral movement of Amorites, Hittites and other Semites 
under the name of Hyksos, which produced so notable an 
upheaval in Egypt, and furnished that land with foreign 
rulers during the fifteenth and sixteenth dynasties. But it 
is evident from the only reference to Israel yet found on 
Egyptian monuments that there were remaining in Palestine 
in the reign of Merneptah some of these clans, sufficient in 
numbers to justify the reference, and that they had been 
subdued by the Pharaoh’s forces in Syria. 18 It is probable 
that most of these people availed themselves of the inviting 
conditions in Egypt, and moved, either in a body or as is 
more likely in a gradual drift along the familiar road to 
the Delta. Here once more the opportunities for contact 
and integration were constant. The late writers and edi¬ 
tors of the age following the great dispersion and the rise 
of Judaism were sensitive both to the racial and religious 
implications of these contacts, and lost no opportunity to em¬ 
phasize the unity and separateness of Israel’s life in all cir¬ 
cumstances. This is a thesis which it is difficult to main- 

17 Gen. 25:1-6; 28:10; 39:1; 46:6, 7; Ex. 20:1; 24:34; 26:1; Ruth 1:1. 

18 The inscription on the stele of Merneptah (1225-1215 b.c.), along 
with other references to Palestine, contains the line “ Israel is desolated, his seed 
is not.” (Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, p. 311.) 

-78- 





Hebrew Origins 


tain, however, in face of the facts which their records 
disclose. 19 

Some generations later the revival of the national spirit 
among the Egyptians led to the restoration of a native dy¬ 
nasty and more difficult days for all foreigners. At such a 
time a company of Hebrews made their way out of the Delta 
under the leadership of Moses. That they left many of their 
clansmen in the land where their recent ancestors had lived 
and been buried is hardly to be doubted. That they took 
with them Egyptians who had become members of their 
households by marriage is a probability. 20 The heritage of 
the land of the Nile remained with them for generations, 
and is made evident in their political and religious charac¬ 
teristics and the relations that prevailed between the two 
peoples throughout their history. 

In the Sinai-Horeb region, wherever it may have been, 
somewhere to the east of Egypt and south of the Dead Sea, 
a new set of contacts and alliances awaited the Hebrew 
wanderers. A friendly tribe of nomads called Midianites 
gave them hospitality, and apparently contributed to the 
migrating clans some elements of their own civil and re¬ 
ligious system, as well as members of their group through 
intermarriage. 21 When the Hebrews moved on, after some 
years, toward the highlands of Canaan, the region to which 
all the desert peoples looked with covetous longing, they 

19 The traditions of the marriage of Joseph to an Egyptian wife (Gen. 
41:45) and of Moses to a Midianitess (Ex. 2:21, 22) are indications of much 
more than individual alliances, and of the absence of any racial exclusiveness. 
Abraham’s alliance with non-Hebrews (Gen. 16:3; 25:1-6) and Judah’s marriage 
to a Canaanitess seem to have been regarded as entirely proper (Gen. 38:2). 

20 Cf. Lev. 24:10. 

21 Ex. 2:15-22; 18:1-27. 


— 79 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


seem to have taken with them fragments of the nomad 
groups in the midst of which they had been living. Some 
of these desert families were assimilated, and some main¬ 
tained their separate, though friendly, relations after settle¬ 
ment in Palestine. Such families as the Kenites, Rechabites 
and others of this character appear to have persisted like 
gypsy camps throughout the history. 22 

The Hebrews made their way into Palestine at vari¬ 
ous times and by different approaches. There seems to 
have been little concerted action. The leadership of Moses 
ended before the borders of Canaan were reached. Some 
attempts were made to enter from the south, but these 
were only partially successful. 23 The major approach was 
made through the highlands of Edom and Moab east of 
the Wady Musa and the Dead Sea. Later traditions told 
of opposition from the people of Moab both by armed 
forces and by incantations, as well as of contacts and al¬ 
liances less creditable and more disastrous. 24 From this 
general region, accounted the territory of the related Semitic 
clans of Ammon and Moab, some of the Hebrews made their 
way, at various times and under different leaders, across the 
Jordan and into the coveted hill country to the west. That 
a considerable number were disinclined to face the difficul¬ 
ties and dangers of invasion of the central mountain range, 
and chose to remain on the east-Jordan plateau, is the testi¬ 
mony of the sources. 25 Explanations were made in the na- 

22 Judg. 4:17-24; Jer. 35:1-19. 

23 Num. 14:36-45; 21:1-3. 

24 Num. 21:21-25:18. 

26 Numbers, chapt. 32. In spite of the Levitical sentiments of the 
writers of Numbers, a portion of the late Priest Code, they record the fact that 

— 80 — 




Hebrew Origins 


ture of apology for this defection, but the fact remains that 
to all intents these clans ceased to have interest in the com¬ 
mon adventure, and were gradually lost to the Hebrew cause, 
either by absorption in the surrounding population or by 
decreasing concern with the affairs of their bolder brethren. 
In days when a common danger summoned the west-Jordan 
tribes to a united stand, these clansmen showed no interest, 
and were taunted as recreants. 26 The names of Reuben, Gad 
and Gilead were held in slight regard, even when they were 
included at all in the national registers. 

Of the two narratives of the occupation of Canaan con¬ 
tained in the Old Testament, the books of Judges and 
Joshua, the former is the older and more authentic. It 
makes clear the gradual and difficult task of securing a foot¬ 
hold in a land already populous and superior in culture and 
military strength. According to this narrative the Hebrew 
clans entered where and when they could, and took such 
portions of the territory as they were able to seize and hold. 
It was a case of every tribe for itself, if such a term as tribes 
can be applied to the various bands of invaders who under 
numerous leaders secured a partial and precarious lodgment 
in the land. It was a slow and hazardous process. As in 
patriarchal days there were feuds, alliances and interrelations 
by marriage and otherwise. Only now these contacts spread 
over a much wider territory and were of much more per¬ 
manent nature. Conflicts were frequent, and results were 
often only partial. But little by little the hardihood and 

a body of Midianite women, thirty-two thousand in number, was incorporated 
into Israel at this time (Num. 31:35). This hints that they were little con¬ 
cerned with the notion of racial purity. 

26 Judg. 5:15, 16. 


-81- 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


vigor of the Hebrews prevailed, and the native population 
was subdued and absorbed. The ultimate disappearance of 
the Amorite, Canaanite and other types of racial grouping, 
if such had not already measurably vanished in the amalgam 
of stocks, was due far less to war than to assimilation. 27 As 
in many other historic instances such as the Normans in 
England in which an invading race is absorbed in the con¬ 
quered population, or is sufficiently numerous and virile to 
become the dominant factor in the new racial mixture, so 
the Hebrews both melted into and slowly transformed the 
peoples of Palestine into a new and potential race, with 
many both of the good and the evil qualities of the con¬ 
stituent groups. In the course of generations the Hebrew 
type emerged, made up like the American, of many differ¬ 
ent racial qualities, but becoming measurably distinctive at 
last, though constantly enriched and modified by fresh in¬ 
fusions of non-Hebrew blood. 

The other narrative, the late priestly record of the book 
of Joshua, presents a far more romantic and patriotic picture 
of the occupation of the land. This is not a slow and painful 
penetration, but a brilliant, rapid and complete conquest. 
The Hebrews, not a scattered and unorganized complex of 
clans, but a united and disciplined people, are led by Joshua, 
the divinely selected successor of Moses, to the accompani¬ 
ment of constant and astonishing miracles, in the total sub¬ 
jugation of the country. This is accomplished chiefly in 
three decisive battles within the space of seven years. The 
population of Palestine is practically exterminated by the 

27 E.g. Rahab, Josh. 2:1-24; 6:17-25; Matt. 1:4; Samson, Judg. 14:1, 2; 
15:15, etc. 


— 82 — 




Hebrew Origins 


victorious Hebrews, and the survivors, a mere remnant, are 
put under bond to good behavior. When the conquest has 
been completed, the tribes, clearly named and classified in 
accordance with their later experiences and traditions, are 
assigned by the sacred lot to their respective territories in a 
great convocation at the venerable sanctuary of Shechem, 
and without demur they betake themselves to their allot¬ 
ments and presumably live happily ever after. The priestly 
and nationalistic character of this account is patent. The 
supernatural element is outstanding as in the late book of 
Esther. It is a “hundred per cent” Hebrew document. 
There is no problem of contact or assimilation with the na¬ 
tive population, for that disturbing element is wiped out 
in well-nigh universal massacre. This is the story of the 
capture of Canaan as it ought to have taken place, in the 
thought of late patriots who looked back on a completely or¬ 
ganized nation, whose tribal traditions had hardened into 
history. 

If then the oldest Hebrew sources are to be trusted, it 
would appear that this people was derived from an unusual 
mingling of racial elements. A Deuteronomist affirms that 
a wandering Aramean was their father, 28 and Ezekiel, a 
staunch nationalist, put into the mouth of deity the taunting 
words, “ By origin and birth you belong to the land of the 
Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother 
a Hittite.” 29 Palestine was the cross-roads of the ancient 
world. All the caravans and armies that passed from the 
lands of the Babylonians, Mitannians, Arameans, Hittites 
and Syrians to Egypt and back had to traverse this narrow 

28 Deut. 26:5. 29 Ezek. 16:3. 


-83- 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


bridge which lay between the desert and the sea. And, as 
in later centuries, few of these passing companies failed to 
leave on the way the populational driftwood which an in¬ 
viting region always lures from wayfaring bands. In all 
historic time Palestine, especially in its cities, has exhibited 
one of the most complex populations to be found in any 
part of the world. And the sources indicate that the same 
conditions prevailed in the years when the Hebrews were 
taking root in the land. That the dominant element in this 
diverse population, including the Hebrews as they gradually 
attained the mastery, was Semitic there can be little doubt. 
But that term, then as now, included many peoples who 
spoke related tongues without having close relationships of 
blood. In fact, the claim has been made, probably too 
broadly, that there never has been a Semitic race in any 
sense which involves unity of blood. 30 An interesting illus¬ 
tration of that fact may be observed at the present time in the 
crowd of pilgrims at Mecca. Though these multitudes who 
throng the sacred places of Islam are all known as Arabs, 
and are most jealous of their ethnic and religious exclusive¬ 
ness, they belong to many tribes that have not the slightest 
connection with the genuine Arab of Semitic stock. In 
fact, with the exception of the Sharifian families descended 
from the Prophet and some few others of real Arab origin, 
the entire population of Mecca is non-Semitic, including as 
it does Indians, Persians, Turks, Javanese and Negroes. 31 

What may have been the physical characteristics of these 
early Hebrews cannot be stated with certainty. It would 

30 McCown, Genesis of the Social Gospel, p. 76. 

31 Riza-Tewfik, Asia, Vol. XXX (March 1930) p. 166. 

-84- 





Hebrew Origins 


seem that they had straight noses, large, straight mouths, 
narrow, high, sloping foreheads. It is now believed that the 
type of countenance which has been found on some of the 
monuments and described as Hebrew was rather an inherit¬ 
ance from the non-Semitic, Armenoid element in the Ca- 
naanite population, due to Hittite and Mitannian influence. 
Perhaps also something of the fair color and Greek cast of 
countenance came from the infusion of Philistine traits. 32 
It can hardly be said that any one prevailing physiological 
type has persisted in Palestine. A migrating people tends to 
take on the characteristics of the populations in the midst of 
which it lives, 33 like the Jews of later centuries; and though 
the Hebrews of the classic age were fairly stable in their 
habitat, they were constantly influenced by the movements 
of the peoples about them, and this may well have had its 
effect upon the continuity of their racial type. 

The names by which the various groups of Hebrews 
came to be known were probably derived from the localities 
in which they found settlement. 34 As time went on these 
tribal names were assumed to be those of their clan ances¬ 
tors, the legendary sons of the eponym hero Jacob-Israel. 
The location of these tribes remained relatively unchanged 
through the history, and gradually the character of each of 
the tribes provided a profile for the traditional ancestor. 
Such portraits are to be found in the two tribal epics put by 
later poets into the mouths of Jacob and Moses respectively, 

82 McCown, op. cit., p. 84. 

83 Ripley, Races of Europe', Boas, Descendants of Emigrants. 

34 “The ancient records present the fact that place-names like Asher, 
Gad, Zebulun, were known in Palestine centuries before any Israelites were 
there.” Godbey, op. cit., p. 28. 


-85- 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


as found in the closing chapters of Genesis and Deuter¬ 
onomy. 35 Nothing more beautiful and fitting is found in 
the literature of this people than these two national hymns, 
in which something of the location, character, animal sym¬ 
bols or totems, and history of the different tribes is recalled. 

And thus the nation that was destined to take its place 
along with the two others that have done most to shape 
western history, came into being in that little land of the 
near east, the highway of the nations. For Greece, Rome 
and Israel have been the intellectual, the institutional and 
the spiritual teachers of the Occident. And of the three the 
Hebrews more profoundly influenced the religious life of 
both east and west than either of the others. For out of 
Israel came that monotheism which produced three daugh¬ 
ter faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism. 
And from the surviving writings of that Hebrew race came 
the impulse that brought into being the three daughter 
literatures — the New Testament, the Talmud and the 
Koran. 

35 Genesis, chapt. 49; Deuteronomy, chapt. 33. 


—86— 




Ill 


HEBREW CONTACTS, ACCRETIONS AND 
DISPERSIONS 

About the time that Hebrew clans were finding a place 
of settlement in Canaan, another people, the Philistines, were 
taking possession of the maritime plain in the south-west 
portion of the same country. 1 The Old Testament writers 
speak of them as coming from Caphtor, which has been sup¬ 
posed to refer either to the island of Crete or to the south¬ 
western coastland of Asia Minor. They are indeed called 
Caphtorites by the Deuteronomist, by Amos and Jeremiah; 
and in many places they are spoken of as Cherethites. 
The combined name Cherethites-Pelethites has often been 
equated with Cretans-Philistines, as implying their western 
and island origin. 2 A favorable view is taken in many quar¬ 
ters of the theory that Hellenic tribes from the north moved 
down upon Crete overthrowing the Minoan civilization and 
accomplishing the tragedy of Knossos. 3 According to this 
theory Cretans fled south-eastward across the sea toward 
Egypt, or the marauders themselves may have taken that 
pursuing course. About the same period similar western 
Hellenic hordes swept down upon the Hittite peoples of cen¬ 
tral Asia Minor and crushed them. Refugees from one or 
both of these waves of conquest traveling both by land and 

1 i Sam. 4:1. 

2 Deut. 2:23; 1 Sam. 30:14, 1 6; Amos 9:7; Jer. 47:4; Zeph. 2:4, 5. 

3 Baikie, The Amarna Age, p. 179. 

—87— 


The Jew Through the Centuries 


sea attempted to settle in Egypt, but were forced back by 
Ramses III, about 1190 b.c., and took possession of the coast 
of Canaan. Later confusion of their colonies with the total 
population of the country, in the minds of Egyptian and 
Greek geographers, gave their name, Palastu, to the entire 
region, which gradually came to be known as Philistia, 
Palistia, or Palestine. Although the country bore many dif¬ 
ferent names in the speech of its own and neighboring 
peoples through its history, in the centuries since the Byzan¬ 
tine period it has borne consistently the name of Palestine. 

The Philistines were not a Semitic people. They are the 
one race that in the Old Testament is regularly spoken of 
as “ the uncircumcised,” 4 that rite being the recognized 
mark of men of Semitic stock. In appearance and culture 
they belonged to the Indo-European family. Yet it would 
appear that they soon adopted much of the speech and reli¬ 
gion of the Semitic population around them. They settled 
in the area from which they had driven out the primitive 
inhabitants, 5 and built their five cities, Gaza, Askelon, Ash- 
dod, Ekron and Gath, 6 and the suburbs or “ daughter vil¬ 
lages,” 7 into a state that survived for centuries. That they 
brought the arts of war with them from the west is indi¬ 
cated by their ability to hold their walled cities in the path¬ 
way of the commerce and military traffic which constantly 
passed their way. It is also shown by the early and con¬ 
tinued hostilities with the Hebrews and the Amorites which 

4 1 Sam. 17:26, 36; 31:4. 

5 Deut. 2:23. 

6 1 Sam. 6:17; Amos 1:7; Zech. 9:5. 

7 See 2 Chron. 28:18, and note the use of the (Hebrew) word “daugh¬ 
ters ” for the smaller towns. 


—88 




Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


presently compelled those dwellers in the highlands to or¬ 
ganize into some semblance of a kingdom. With the Jebu- 
site stronghold of Jerusalem dividing the tribes north and 
south, the presence of an aggressive people like the Philis¬ 
tines on the south-west was a serious menace. 8 

The relations of the Hebrews with the Philistines were 
constant and varied. In the days of the judges they were 
regarded as unpleasant neighbors, though there were deal¬ 
ings and intermarriages with them, as the Samson traditions 
suggest. 9 A little later they overwhelmed the Hebrews at 
the battle of Aphek, carried away the ark and sacked the 
sanctuary town of Shiloh. 10 During the brief and ineffectual 
leadership of Saul they were a constant threat, and finally 
wrought the disaster of Mt. Gilboa. 11 Already, however, 
Hebrews like David were finding refuge from troubles at 
home by taking service with Philistine chiefs as mercenaries. 
When David was chosen king, his neighbors in the lowland 
were alarmed, and made efforts to frustrate the enterprise, 
but were subdued in a series of battles, 12 and from that time 
on were not a serious menace to the Hebrew states. David 
took the Philistine city of Gath and added it to the territories 
of Israel, and he employed Philistine soldiers as his body¬ 
guard, 13 a custom followed by many other kings in history, 
who preferred to have men of foreign speech as their per¬ 
sonal escort. After the division of the kingdom there were 
occasional and apparently rather unsuccessful attacks upon 

8 Masterman, The Philistines. 

9 Judges, chapts. 13-16. 

1 Samuel, chapt. 5; Ps. 78:59, 60; Jer. 7:12, 14; 26:9. 

11 1 Samuel, chapt. 31. 

12 2 Sam. 5:17-25. 

13 2 Sam. 8:18; 15:18. 


-89- 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the Philistine frontier fortress of Gibbethon, 14 but the terri¬ 
tory and influence of the shore-land people decreased with 
the years. In the times of Amos the men of their cities were 
denounced for carrying on traffic in slaves with Edom, the 
slave market of the region. 15 In spite of natural intermar¬ 
riage and fusion with adjacent clans, and repeated losses to 
Egypt and Assyria by invasion and plundering, the Philis¬ 
tines were able to maintain their existence till the fifth cen¬ 
tury b.c., particularly after the successive downfall of the 
kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Intermarriage between them 
and the struggling Jewish state is recorded in the days of 
Nehemiah, insomuch that the children of these mixed mar¬ 
riages used the Philistine speech on the streets of Jerusalem. 16 
But absorption and attrition wrought their effects on the 
pentapolis by the sea, and before the Maccabean age the 
Philistines disappeared from history. 

The contact and assimilation between the Hebrews and 
the Philistines was an example of what occurred between 
Israel and the other races of Palestine, only that the Philis¬ 
tines retained their integrity and their separate existence 
longer than most of the others, owing to their militant char¬ 
acter, their more remote location and their non-Semitic 
strain. In the other instances there were no such safeguards, 
and where both natural inclination and the pressure of cir¬ 
cumstances favored absorption into the dominant state, it 
was inevitable that the older races disappeared into the He¬ 
brew population. 17 In the wars of David the entire region 

14 i Kings 15:27; 16:17. 

15 Amos 1:6. 

16 Neh. 13:23, 24. 

17 Cf. the story in Judges 21:13-23 of the abduction of the two hun¬ 
dred Canaanite maidens of Shiloh by the man of Benjamin. 

— 90 — 





Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


of Palestine east and west was subdued, and its people incor¬ 
porated in his kingdom. This did not imply the extinction 
of states like Ammon, Moab and Edom, nor of Phoenicia. 
They remained, like the Philistine cities. But contacts were 
constant. Trade, and even war, resulted in relations that 
made for integration. The little Jebusite enclave was en¬ 
gulfed and Jerusalem became the capital. 18 Friendly rela¬ 
tions were established with Tyre and Sidon, which furnished 
Israel with artisans as well as building materials from the 
Lebanons in the days of David and Solomon. The fact that 
Hiram the architect of the temple was the son of a Tyrian 
father and a mother from the tribe of Dan was an example 
of the free marital relations of the time. Military service in 
Hebrew armies was no exceptional adventure on the part of 
foreigners, as in the cases of Ittai the man from Gath, Uriah 
the Hittite, married to a Hebrew woman afterward the 
mother of Solomon, Obil the Ishmaelite, and Jazziz the 
Hagrite, all of whom held responsible positions as overseers 
of substance among David’s officers, reminding us of Doeg 
the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen. 19 

As in the times of the judges, so in the years following 
the establishment of the kingdom, the desert tribes, envious 
of the comparative wealth of the west-Jordan area, swarmed 
across the river at every favorable opportunity and secured 
whatever plunder they could seize. The fortresses were few 
and inadequate, and many of the invaders chose to remain 
where they could find a footing. There was constant in¬ 
filtration from the steppe in the days of David, of Ahab and 

18 2 Sam. 5:4-12. 

19 1 Sam. 21:7; 2 Sam. 15:19-22; 1 Chron. 27:30, 31. 

— 91 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


of Jehu. Elijah himself is an example of the nomadic peo¬ 
ples that contributed to the national stock . 20 In the reigns 
of strong kings like Solomon and his successors, both in the 
north and the south, many strangers were attracted to the 
land as a desirable home. Solomon and Ahab, like Herod 
in later days, were eager to encourage the growth of the na¬ 
tion. The example of intermixture with other races was 
set by the kings themselves, whose harems were recruited 
from all the neighboring peoples, and whose many children 
poured their mixed blood into the life stream of Israel . 21 
Far from disclosing any desire to restrict the population to 
Hebrew stock, such sovereigns as Solomon, Ahab, Uzziah 
and the two Jeroboams adopted the open door policy in their 
dealings with the non-Hebrew peoples, and even established 
free trade, with designated quarters for this reciprocal inter¬ 
course, both in their own capitals and in other lands . 22 
Doubtless the poorer classes, attached to the soil and their 
industries, were little affected by these changing customs. 
But the court circles and the wealthier classes in close imita¬ 
tion adopted the free manners of the age, and paid little 
regard to any restriction of social contacts. The principle 

20 i Kings 17:1. 

21 In imitation of other oriental rulers David assembled a harem of wives 
and concubines (2 Sam. 3:2-5; 5:13-16), some of whom were foreigners. In 
Solomon’s time the royal harem included, according to the writers of Kings, 
seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (1 Kings 11:1-3). The 
fact that these wives are called “ princesses ” shows that they were from other 
racial groups, and they are said to have come from Egypt, Moab, Ammon, 
Edom, Phoenicia and the Hittites. The mother of Rehoboam, who succeeded 
Solomon as king, was an Ammonitess. Although the prophetic writers depre¬ 
cated this practice, it was on religious rather than racial grounds, and there 
is a note of pride in their references to the huge royal establishments. Certainly 
there was no interest on their part in any principle of racial purity. 

22 1 Kings 20:34. 


— 92 — 





Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


of endogamy is strong among primitive peoples, and this 
appears to have had its influence in the earlier years of He¬ 
brew life. But with the growth of the nation in culture and 
wealth it ceased to be effective, and intermarriage with non- 
Hebrews was apparently accepted as both permissible and 
desirable. 

In the stricter circles of prophets and priests the grow¬ 
ing evils of idolatry, the result of these foreign contacts, 
were sternly disapproved, and in the codes, beginning with 
Deuteronomy, they were condemned. 23 But there is little 
evidence that such laws were ever given serious considera¬ 
tion in the life of the people, and an argument might be 
made that they were hardly intended to represent more than 
a sentiment of national loyalty. There were other laws, not 
a few, which it would have been difficult if not impossible to 
enforce, and which may be regarded rather as counsels of 
perfection than actual mandates. However, the presence of 
laws against intermarriage with foreigners in the codes as 
well as repeated warnings in the historical material would 
indicate that the custom was common, and constituted in 
the minds of the stricter legalists a problem of some signifi¬ 
cance. The contrast between the prophetic attitude and that 
of the more successful kings is illustrated by the opposing 
policies of Solomon, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh; of 
the popular and aggressive Ahab, and Elijah the valiant 
champion of Hebrew separatism; or of Isaiah pleading for 
complete isolation, and kings like Ahaz and Hezekiah whose 
conduct plunged the nation into the vortex of foreign en¬ 
tanglement. 


23 Deut. 7:1-5, etc. 

—93 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


In the period of Israel’s growing wealth and impor¬ 
tance the small group of moral leaders who were the true 
interpreters of national integrity as well as of religious 
ideals pleaded ceaselessly against the growing secularism of 
the times, the tendency to look to the neighboring peoples 
for fashions in dress and in manners, and to forget the di¬ 
vine sanctions which alone gave the nation its pattern of 
belief and conduct and its justification for existence. To a 
discouraging degree the spiritual guides of Israel spoke to 
inattentive audiences, or found their words confused with 
the smooth and easy utterances of prophets of the popular 
order to whom the national success and emulation of the 
civilizations about them were of chief concern. The fatal 
character of such policies and preachments was disclosed 
when all too swiftly Israel and Judah paid the price of their 
short-sighted conduct and were washed out of history by 
the onsweeping waves of foreign invasion, leaving only the 
warnings and admonitions of their great seers as an imper¬ 
ishable legacy to later centuries. 

Never during all these years was the Hebrew race kept 
free from the constant infusion of foreign blood and ideas. 
Especially was this true of the cities, where contacts with 
non-Hebrew life were continuous and powerful. This was 
even more true of the northern kingdom than of Judah, 
where the proportion of nomadic stock was greater, and the 
presence of the temple and the Davidic court safeguarded in 
some degree the conservatism of the peasant population. 
But even in the south there were ceaseless contact and as¬ 
similation of outside influences, and the little state was too 
small and too weak to resist them. In the north there were 


—94 — 




Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


few safeguards to the earlier ideals of Israel. The land lay 
open and inviting to foreign exploitation. As Isaiah said, it 
was like a ripe fig, waiting to be plucked by the first passer¬ 
by. 24 Though the people north and south were still He¬ 
brews, they were not of that stout and hardy order of men 
whose fathers had subdued the land and made a nation. 
The blood of different clans flowed in their veins. 

If the tribes with which the nation started, according to 
the traditions, had been undisturbed through the history 
they would have preserved to a greater degree the conven¬ 
tions of Hebrew life and promoted the sense of local loyal¬ 
ties. But one of the innovations introduced by Solomon 
was the redivision of the territory into twelve districts which 
ignored the earlier tribal boundaries, and shattered to a cer¬ 
tain extent the consciousness of tribal integrity. 25 From that 
time onward the older boundaries lost in a measure their 
significance. It was probably impossible to eradicate the sen¬ 
timent of tribal attachment, even if it had been the deliberate 
design. But nothing stabilizes a people’s unity of purpose 
like its devotion to the district in which it has lived, and 
when that sense of historic continuity is destroyed much is 
lost. The tribes of Israel could not be wiped out entirely by 
any process of gerrymandering such as Solomon undertook. 
But this policy together with the mutations which war and 
other changing conditions brought modified the pattern of 
Israel’s territorial placements and had its effects upon the 
land. 

Some of the tribes quite lost out. Simeon was absorbed 
into Judah and disappeared. The east-Jordan clans faded 

24 Isa. 28:4. 25 1 Kings 47 ~i 9 > 27. 


—95 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


from the picture. The far northern groups ceased to have 
a part in national affairs, and were drawn naturally into 
Phoenician relations. 26 The idea of “ twelve tribes ” was 
cherished, though there was not agreement regarding their 
actual identity, and the lists were different. 27 The prepon¬ 
derant strength of the two powerful clans of Ephraim and 
Judah overshadowed all the others, and resulted in the natu¬ 
ral cleavage between the two, which was of very early origin, 
and presently caused the division of the nation. 28 There 
were of course loyalties preserved in all the areas of Israel 
which would not permit the old tribal names and memories 
to die out. Such are to be found in these late poems, the 
odes of the tribes, which kept alive ancient traditions long 
after the tribes themselves had vanished from history, 29 and 
they are even echoed in the New Testament. 30 As will be 
seen later there came a time when the passion for genealogi¬ 
cal connection with the past took strong hold on people who 
believed themselves capable of claiming even the most tenu¬ 
ous connection with the classic race of the Hebrews. In 
such instances a lineage is not a difficult contrivance, and 

26 i Kings 9:11, 12. 

27 Gen. 35:23-26; Ex. 28:21. A comparison of the various lists of the 
tribes shows that although the general notion of twelve persisted, the names 
varied in the different enumerations. Some included and some omitted such 
names as Joseph, Levi, Ephraim, Manasseh. Cf. the national poems already re¬ 
ferred to, and such passages as Deut. 27:11-14; the variant lists in Ezekiel, 
chapt. 48, and the “Domesday Book” of Israel in Joshua, chapts. 13-19. 

28 There was never any real unity between the north and the south. 
Southern Judah was closely affiliated with Kenites (Judg. 1:16), Edomites, 
Jerahmealites, and other desert tribes. David sent presents to Edomite and 
Jerahmealite villages in the south (1 Sam. 30:26-31). Abner’s contemptuous 
words, “ Am I a dog’s head of Judah? ” reflects the hostility between the two 
sections (2 Sam. 3:8). 

29 Genesis, chapt. 49; Deuteronomy, chapt. 33. 

80 Acts 26:7; Jas. 1:1; Rev. 7:5-8. 

-96- 




Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


whether valid or fanciful, it lends itself to family pride, and 
in some degree to social prestige. 

But if Israel received frequent infusions of foreign blood 
from the neighboring peoples, even more evident is the series 
of losses sustained through the repeated shocks of war and 
expatriation. It has been seen that from the very beginnings 
of the story of the Hebrews in Palestine individuals and 
groups had taken their way into other lands. Travel and 
trade were never intermitted, and they always involved set¬ 
tlement in extra-Palestinian regions. But it was invasion 
from without and civil war within that took grim toll of 
Israel’s vitality and made impossible such a national career 
as would have given the people a real place in the sun. The 
jealousies between the two sections of the state which flamed 
out into rebellion at the close of Solomon’s reign were but 
the culmination of tensions and feuds which had required 
all the skill of David and the authority of his son to hold in 
check. The same feeling kept the two little states of Israel 
and Judah embroiled with each other through most of the 
years of their parallel course. Civil strife characterized the 
succession of dynastic changes that marked the history of 
the northern kingdom, where king after king was assassi¬ 
nated by a successful rival. War in that age as in modern 
times always takes the best manhood of a people and leaves 
it impoverished in blood and treasure. The terrible reforms 
of Jehu, though encouraged by the prophets, were the occa¬ 
sion of such massacres of the leaders and the resourceful 
members of the community in Samaria as must have low¬ 
ered the vitality of the state for a generation. These were 
but episodes in a history that was replete with tragedy both 


—97 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


in the north and the south, and set barriers of hatred and 
devastation across the pathway of Israel’s progress. In spite 
of revivals of strength under such kings as Jeroboam II and 
Uzziah, the dual kingdoms grew too weak to survive the 
shocks of fate from without. 

Those shocks came in sequences which left scant time 
for recovery. The Israel of the dynasties of Omri and Jehu 
received crushing blows in wars with Syria, as Sir George 
Adam Smith has eloquently pointed out. 31 These convul¬ 
sions permitted desert dwellers to come in and take root as 
securely as Israel had done at the first. The sack of Jeru¬ 
salem by Shishak of Egypt in the fifth year of Rehoboam’s 
reign was a heavy blow to the pride and the wealth of the 
city that Solomon had beautified and enriched, 32 and it 
meant a large deportation of captives to Egypt. We read 
that in the reign of Jehoram of Judah there was an inva¬ 
sion by “ the Philistines and the Arabians that were beside 
the Ethiopians, who came against Judah and broke into it 
and carried away all the substance that was found in the 
king’s house, and his sons and his wives.” 33 We are told 
that in the time of Joash the Syrians came against Jerusalem 
and Judah and destroyed all the princes and a very great 
host, and took the spoil of them to Damascus. 34 And if the 
Chronicler leaves himself open to suspicion in the almost 
incredible figures in which he recounts these and many 
other misfortunes that befell Judah — such as that in the 
reign of Ahaz the king of Syria carried away a great multi- 

31 Historical Geography of the Holy Land, pp. 58 ft. 

32 1 Kings 14:25, 26; 2 Chron. 12:1-9. 

33 2 Chron. 21:16, 17. 

34 2 Chron. 24:23. 


-98- 





Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


tude of captives, and that Pekah of Israel slew in Judah a 
hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant 
men, and that in that contest two hundred thousand captives 
were carried away together with great store 35 — it is prob¬ 
able that allowing for much exaggeration sinister facts lie 
behind these lurid recitals, facts that throw solemn light on 
the causes of the national debacle. 

It must be kept in mind, as bearing on the question of 
racial integrity, that every invasion or other military contact 
led inevitably to plunder, ravage, violation of women, and 
the other tragedies that war involves. One of the frequently 
recurring references in the sources relates to the outrages 
committed by foreign soldiers on the womanhood of Israel. 
These sinister allusions, either in actual narrative or in 
sombre anticipation, run all through the history from Egyp¬ 
tian days to the final catastrophe. 36 

Whatever may have been the possibilities of Israel’s be¬ 
coming a world power in the times when the state arose with 
such promise under David and Solomon, that hope was for¬ 
ever dispelled by the conquest of Samaria and the dispersion 
of her people. One is tempted to picture a great empire with 
its capital at Jerusalem or Samaria. To be sure the country 
was small, “ the least of all lands,” it has been called. Yet 
other nations that became world rulers had small begin¬ 
nings and little territory. Rome at the first was but a cluster 
of settlements among the Alban hills. Greece was a diminu¬ 
tive state. Egypt, Babylon and Assyria began as city powers. 

36 2 Chron. 28:5, 6. 

36 Notice the statements or the implications of such passages as Ex. 15:9; 
Deut. 28:30, 32; Judg. 5:30; 2 Kings 8:12; 15:16; Isa. 13:16; Lam. 3:51; 5:10; 
Amos 1:3, 13; Zech. 14:2. 


—99— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Palestine was in the center of the oriental world, at the cross¬ 
roads of the nations. It had open pathways to all lands, and 
yet was in a location impregnable on its mountains. Prob¬ 
ably something like this dream filled the minds of Reho- 
boam’s youthful advisers when they urged him to push on 
to the imperial objectives of his father. But the prophets 
were of a different mind. They chose a moral rather than a 
political empire, and by rending the nation asunder they 
made futile all future efforts to build up a world state on that 
soil. If one is thinking in terms of a majestic kingdom, he 
can never forgive Ahijah of Shiloh and his colleagues. But 
if he is thinking of the course of morality and religion, he 
knows that they saved a broken and defeated Israel for a 
nobler adventure. 37 

The event which proved the beginning of the end and 
rang down the curtain on the major section of the Hebrew 
drama was the fall of northern Israel in 721 b.c. The inva¬ 
sion by Shalmaneser IV and the three years siege of Samaria 
culminated in its conquest by Sargon II, and its disap¬ 
pearance from history for some centuries. Already in the 
reign of Pekah, in the crisis of 734 b.c., Tiglath-pileser III 
had raided the northern kingdom, carrying away a great 
company of captives. 38 But far more tragic was the event of 
721. This was the latest of several eruptions of the Assyrians 
into Palestine, and it was not the last. But it was crushing 
and final so far as the kingdom of Israel was concerned. 
The usual policy was followed in the treatment of a con¬ 
quered people. Those of the inhabitants who were resource¬ 
ful or likely to breed further trouble were taken out of the 

37 1 Kings, chapt. 12. 38 2 Kings 15:29. 


— IOO — 




Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


land. This would probably be but a small proportion of the 
population, for there was no wisdom in expending unneces¬ 
sary effort and expense in a mere act of reprisal. Sargon’s 
record asserts that he deported 27,300 of the people. This 
would probably leave a large proportion of the Israelites un¬ 
disturbed. But they were a broken, leaderless community, 
and to make the situation more desperate, Sargon adopted 
the customary Assyrian device of bringing in foreign settlers 
to break still further the spirit of the unhappy Hebrews. 
The biblical record states that the exiles were “ carried away 
into Assyria and placed in Halah, and in Habor on the 
river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.” 39 There they 
were absorbed into the population of the country, as was 
the intention of their masters. They made no history in 
the new world of their expatriation, and left no literature. 
In this they were less fortunate than the Judean exiles of a 
later generation. Eager inquiries have been made in mod¬ 
ern times as to what really became of the “ ten lost tribes,” 
and fantastic guesses have been ventured. Of course they 
were never “ lost ” in the sense that something can be mis¬ 
laid. Like many other racial groups under the ruthless 
policies of Assyria and Babylonia they “ lost out,” lost their 
place in history, their national inheritance and their land. 40 

The people who were brought in to take their places 
were no doubt the subjects of similar disciplinary measures, 
perhaps participants in revolts against the Assyrian govern¬ 
ment. They are said to have come from Babylon, Cuthah, 
Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim. 41 The annals of Sargon say 

39 2 Kings 17:6. 

40 Godbey, The Lost Tribes a Myth, particularly chapter i. 

41 2 Kings 17:24. 

— IOI — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


that the newcomers represented four desert tribes, the Ta- 
mudi, Ibadidi, Marsimani and Haiappai. 42 This meant a 
new infusion of nomadic blood, such as the wars both civil 
and foreign had encouraged for centuries. Tribes which 
disturbed the empire could be moved or allowed to migrate. 
As long as the customary tribute was paid it mattered little 
what people occupied a province. So far as the dominant 
power on the Tigris was concerned, the fate of a little people 
in the distant region they were accustomed to call the “ land 
of Omri” was of small moment. And so another nation, 
one more of many to suffer such a fate, passed out of history. 

And yet it did not entirely lose its life. It had given to 
the world a great succession of moral leaders whose names 
and messages were to continue as beacon lights through the 
centuries. Those forceful personalities, Samuel, Ahijah, Eli¬ 
jah, Elisha, Amos and Hosea belonged either in their na¬ 
tivity or their ministries to the northern kingdom, and there 
must have been many others of their order unnamed in the 
records whose work carried to wider areas the teaching of 
these masters in Israel. Their activities produced little fruit¬ 
age in the life of the nation. But their line has gone out into 
all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. The 
prophets of Judah, to whom now fell the responsibility for 
Israel’s testimony, built upon the foundation they had laid, 
and the confessors of Christianity and of Judaism today 
count these great souls of the north and the south as having 
one voice in the spiritual education of the race. 

In one other aspect the kingdom of Israel continued to 
function after its apparent decease. In the midst of the 

42 Olmstead, History of Assyria, p. 210. 


— 102 — 




Hebrew Contacts, Accretions and Dispersions 


heathenism that prevailed in Palestine as the result of the 
mixture of men of different stocks and cults, 43 there must 
have been many of the unhappy people who clung to their 
ancient law, the Book of the Covenant, and cherished the 
teachings of Moses and the prophets. Whether they were 
scattered or grouped in communities they contrived to re¬ 
main faithful to the memories of the past, and to hope for 
better days. Little is known of these survivors of Israel, but 
gradually they came to be known as Samaritans, from the 
name of the capital city of Israel, and when they are en¬ 
countered further down the years they have an organic 
existence, a sense of loyalty to the Hebrew traditions, and 
a deep and growing conviction that they alone are preserv¬ 
ing the sanctities of the classic age, endangered by what 
they regard as the schismatic movement under way at Jeru¬ 
salem. The ampler story of the Samaritan community 
falls to a later stage of this inquiry. But the student of 
religion, and especially the one who endeavors to trace the 
outgoings of the Hebrew life, will not fail to give due atten¬ 
tion to this Samaritan group, which through all the muta¬ 
tions of time has maintained its existence and continued its 
claim to be the authentic representative of ancient Israel. 

43 2 Kings 17:25-33. 


— IO3 — 



IV 


DECLINE AND FALL OF JUDAH: CLOSE 
OF HEBREW HISTORY 

The collapse of the kingdom of Israel in 721 b.c. under 
the blows of Assyria did not at once bring to an end the 
Hebrew age in Palestine. It might well have had this result, 
so far as the relative strength of the two kingdoms was con¬ 
cerned, for through most of the history Judah was the smaller 
and weaker of the two states, and much of the time it was 
hardly more than a war vassal of Israel. It had its brief 
periods of success, as in the brilliant reign of Uzziah. But 
from the times of Ahaz and his unfortunate alliance with 
Assyria it was torn between Assyrian and Egyptian lean¬ 
ings, and as Hosea said of Israel, it was like a silly dove that 
turned this way and that for help. 1 Undoubtedly the con¬ 
tinuity of the temple services and the Davidic dynasty were 
the chief stabilizing influences. But the wavering policies 
of successive rulers, and the increasing weakness of the little 
state foretold an early disruption. The interval from 721 to 
586 b.c. was an all-too-brief extension of the Hebrew regime. 
It included the maturer years of Isaiah’s ministry, the half 
century of Jeremiah’s preaching, and the activities of other 
notable leaders, prophetic and priestly. But the end was 
in sight. It was at best the Indian summer of Israel’s season 

1 Hos. 7:11. 


— IO4 — 


Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


of opportunity. And as Jeremiah said sadly, “ the harvest 
is past, the summer is ended.” 2 

During much of this period the authority and influence 
of Assyria were dominant in the country. From the reign 
of Ahaz until the fall of Nineveh the foreigner was in 
control, though there were moments when Judah dreamed 
of independence and thereby incurred heavier discipline. 
When Assyria fell before the assault of the rising power of 
the new Babylonian state, the foreign control merely passed 
from one hand to another, to the astonishment and despair 
of prophets like Habakkuk, who were hoping, like India 
today, for the end of alien dominion. In fact there was 
hardly a time in the entire story of Hebrew life when the 
record might not have been written in terms of one or 
another of the long succession of powers that held partial or 
complete overlordship in Palestine. The list includes Egyp¬ 
tians, Philistines, Syrians, Assyrians and Persians; and in the 
days following the rise of the Jewish state, with the excep¬ 
tion of the brilliant years of Maccabean power, the same 
foreign type of control continued under Egyptian, Syrian 
and Roman rule. As Sir George Adam Smith declares, 
Palestine has never belonged to any one people and never 
will. And now the end was in sight. The prophets felt 
the burden of the approaching tragedy of the nation’s col¬ 
lapse. Isaiah took comfort in the thought of the remnant 
that should survive, but that remnant in reality was not to 
be a political state but an ethical and spiritual realm. Jere¬ 
miah was confident that after the years of discipline the 

2 Jer. 8:20. 


—105— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


nation was to be restored to its former glory. 3 But these 
dreams were never realized. 

Even more serious than the subjection of the land to 
the authority of the great empires on the Tigris and the 
Euphrates was the constant eruption of neighboring tribes 
into the territory of Judah. The Chronicler insists that it 
was not strange that Ahaz should appeal to Assyria for help, 
for in addition to his serious problem of meeting the Syro- 
Ephraimite emergency, “ the Edomites had come and smit¬ 
ten Judah and carried away captives. The Philistines also 
had invaded the cities of the lowland and of the south of 
Judah and had taken Beth-shemesh and Aijalon and Cede- 
roth and Soco and Timnah, with their daughter towns, and 
dwelt in them.” 4 From other directions as well came un¬ 
invited foreigners to possess the more desirable areas of the 
west-Jordan region, and always from the desert the nomads 
pushed in, as they have done in every century and are doing 
today. All this intrusion of foreign elements added to the 
interfusion of population and reduced the proportion of 
Hebrew blood. It must not be forgotten, as well, that Heze- 
kiah, conscious that after the fall of Samaria the people of 
the north had little opportunity for the worship of Jahveh 
the God of their fathers, sent invitations “to the remnant 
that had escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria ” 
to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the passover. Many 
responded, writes the Chronicler, though others scorned 
the message. 5 A hospitable attitude of this sort on the part 
of Judah would naturally induce some of the visitors to 

3 Jeremiah, chapts. 11, 12; 29:10. 6 2 Chron. 30:1-11. 

4 2 Chron. 28:17, 18. 

— I06 — 





Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


become residents of the land. The custom of going up to 
Jerusalem for the sacrifices continued until the fall of the 
city. 6 Moreover Hezekiah took the first effective steps to 
suppress the worship in the country sanctuaries both south 
and north, 7 an enterprise which culminated later in the 
Deuteronomic legislation and the reforms of Josiah. 

The severest blow dealt Judah in these years was the 
compaign of Sennacherib, in 701 b.c. and the devastation 
wrought by his forces. That Jerusalem was not taken and 
that some mysterious misfortune befell the Assyrian army 
is the favorable side of the story given by the Hebrew his¬ 
torian, who brings into striking prominence the heroism 
and statesmanship of the prophet Isaiah. 8 But the prism of 
Sennacherib gives the Assyrian account, in which the king 
claims that he took forty-six walled cities with their suburbs 
and more than two hundred thousand captives. The former 
Philistine cities of Ekron, Ashdod and Gath had to be given 
up. The royal harem was taken to Nineveh, and the tribute 
of the land was increased by a levy of thirty talents of gold, 
eight hundred of silver, precious stones, ivory, costly woods 
and metal tools. 9 Allowing for all probable exaggeration in 
the royal narrative the situation was sufficiently desperate. 
The picture drawn in the first chapter of Isaiah might well 
be that of the stricken land. The event was symptomatic 
of the unsteadiness of government in Judah, pulled this 
way and that by Egyptian and Assyrian lobbies, and pay- 

6 Jer. 41:5. 

7 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chron. 31:1. 

8 2 Kings 18:13-19: 37; 2 Chron. 32:1-23; Isaiah, chapts. 36, 37 - 

9 Olmstead, History of Assyria, pp. 3 ° 5 > 306; Barton, Archaeology and 
the Bible, pp. 372, 373. 


— IO7 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


ing the price of successive attempts to escape the foreign 
yoke. 

The long reign of Manasseh witnessed a deliberate de¬ 
parture from all the ideals of the prophets of Jahveh, and 
the cultivation of relations both political and religious with 
the paganisms of the east. In such a time the tendency to¬ 
ward cosmopolitanism became more pronounced than ever, 
and there were few checks to intercourse, commercial, social 
and religious, with the outside world. This situation could 
not fail to alarm the men of priestly and prophetic type who 
felt themselves in any manner charged with responsibility 
for the faith and morals of the people, especially in regard 
to idolatrous practices and intermarriages with neighboring 
tribes. The remedy lay in some reshaping of the national 
institutes on more stringent lines, with explicit prohibition 
of worship at the provincial sanctuaries and of the admission 
of foreigners into the families and worship of Judah, and 
other needed statutes. Hence came the Deuteronomic code, 
prepared apparently in these dark days when all preaching 
of the national faith was suppressed, and the only hope lay 
in an appeal to the next administration. The temple was 
the fitting place of deposit for such a restatement of the law, 
and there it was found after the long nightmare of the 
reigns of Manasseh and Amon was over. 10 All the more 
disheartening was the situation in view of the apparent popu¬ 
larity of Manasseh and his heathenizing policies. The proph¬ 
ets were loud in their protests, but like other rulers whose 
conduct exasperated the prophetic party, Manasseh seems to 
have been regarded with general favor. Later generations 

10 2 Kings 22:8-10. 

—108 — 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


also took a generous view of his reign, as is shown by the 
Chronicler’s record of his summons to Babylon to explain 
his conduct, and his consequent amendment. 11 

Josiah came to the throne too late to arrest more than 
temporarily the nation’s descent to Avernus. His policies 
were wholesome, but the opportunity for Judah’s salvation 
had passed. However sincere the effort to follow the dis¬ 
covery of the new code with vigorous reforms, it accom¬ 
plished little. 12 Even if Jeremiah had been in sympathy with 
the covenant thus proclaimed, he could not prevail against 
the determined hostility of venial officials and a paganized 
populace. Like Hezekiah the king extended his reform¬ 
ing efforts to the mixed population of the north, which 
action probably brought fresh emigrants into Judah. 13 But 
all this accomplished only transient results. The reforms 
of Josiah failed as completely as did those of Akhenaten in 
Egypt. The death of the king in a foolish attempt to inter¬ 
vene in the Egypto-Assyrian controversy removed the only 
protector of the reformers, and left the state in the hands 
of weak or vicious men. 14 The laws against intermarriage 
were never enforced, there was growing intermixture be¬ 
tween the native population and the strangers who took ad¬ 
vantage of the lax government to secure holdings, and thus 
there was a gradual disappearance of racial distinctions. 

If the Deuteronomic laws 15 could have been applied 
with vigor there might have grown up an effective resistence 

11 2 Chron. 33:11-13; cf. the Prayer of Manasses, in the Apocrypha. 

12 2 Kings, chapts. 22, 23. 

13 2 Kings 23:15-20; 2 Chron. 34:6. 

14 2 Kings 24:29, 30; 2 Chron. 35:20-25. 

15 Deut. 7:1-6; 23:3-8; 25:17-19. 


— IO9 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


to denationalization. But it would seem that down to the 
days of Ezra there was no effort to hinder foreign marriages 
or to safeguard the Hebrew inheritance. Even the reform¬ 
ers themselves manifested no objection to the free incorpo¬ 
ration of foreign elements into the population through 
conquest. In spite of general prohibitions, perhaps intended 
as a thrust at current pagan practices, 16 they explicitly state 
that the women and children of cities taken in war are to be 
counted as legitimate spoil and absorbed into the commu¬ 
nity. 17 There seems indeed to have been a degree of pride 
in the increase of the Hebrew population by all of these 
methods — natural growth, conquest and immigration. In 
this regard Israel resembled the growing American nation 
in the forties and fifties of the last century, when every ship¬ 
load of immigrants was counted a matter of congratulation. 
If those immigrants who made their way into Palestine dur¬ 
ing these declining years had been of the same sturdy and 
purposeful character that Israel possessed at the beginning, 
or that those men exhibited who came in from many lands 
at the revival of Judah to lay the foundations of the new 
Jewish nation, the result might have been different and 
the commonwealth of Israel might have survived. 

Not only was there a constant infiltration of neighbor¬ 
ing and nomadic peoples into the land, but there were de¬ 
partures just as injurious to the integrity of Judah. The 
growing weakness of the state, the persecutions carried on 
both in the name of Jahvism and of the pagan faiths, the 
unhappy economic conditions that prevailed and the increas- 

16 Deut. 7:1; 20:17; 23:3-8; and cf. McCown, op. cit., p. 89. 

17 Deut. 20:10-14; 21:10-13. 

— no — 





Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


ing fear of worse things to come led many of the people 
to seek refuge elsewhere. Slave raids and deportations in 
earlier days had done their work. Jeremiah makes it clear 
that at the time Jerusalem came to its end there were He¬ 
brews living in Moab, Ammon and Edom who had been 
driven out from their homes and compelled to find asylum 
elsewhere. These returned at this time to salvage what they 
could of the abandoned fruits and other products of the 
land. 18 Poverty also must have led many who possessed 
courage and ambition to try their fortunes in other lands, 
and men of wealth would naturally feel apprehensive in the 
growing nervousness of the times, and seek a more secure 
place of residence. Many betook themselves to Egypt, as 
Hebrews had done for centuries, and were to continue to 
do in the evil days ahead. 

The spirit of patriotism flared up briefly and sporadically 
as the end approached. The infatuation of rebellion against 
Babylon could not be cured by all the memories of tragic 
experiences in the past. The revolt of Jehoiakim in 597 b.c. 
brought swift punishment at the hands of Nebuchadrezzar. 
The warnings of Jeremiah against the futility of attempts at 
independence had no effect. The king of Judah had the 
good fortune to die before the blow fell, and the unfortu¬ 
nate son, Jehoiachin, received the chastisement deserved by 
his headstrong and spendthrift father. The Judean cities 
outside of Jerusalem were abandoned to their fate. 19 Egypt, 
to which Judah had so often looked for the help blandly 
promised in time of need, could or would do nothing, for 
Nebuchadrezzar held the entire territory of Palestine. 20 

18 Jer. 40:11, 12. 19 Jer. 13:17-19. 20 2 Kings 24:7. 

— Ill — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Jerusalem was invested and taken. The royal family and 
all the more important officials, soldiers, and lesser citizens 
to the number of eighteen thousand were removed to Baby¬ 
lonia ; at the same time the temple and palace were stripped 
of their treasures to make up the indemnity exacted. 21 To 
Jeremiah it seemed that Judah was completely carried away 
into captivity. 22 Jehoiachin remained a prisoner for many 
years in Babylon, though tradition affirmed that he was 
later treated with kindness. 23 In that same company, as tra¬ 
dition affirmed, went the young Ezekiel, to be the shepherd 
of a little colony of expatriates in the far land. 24 Thus was 
added one more to the long list of dispersions, deportations 
and plunderings which wasted the strength of both Israel 
and Judah and brought them successively to their doom. 

In spite of the sense of ruin which fell upon the sur¬ 
vivors of this catastrophe there was still a fairly numerous 
population remaining in the little state. The temple was 
left, though despoiled, and a false optimism was encouraged 
to the effect that the trouble would soon be past and the 
exiles would be allowed to return. This was the sentiment 
both in Judah and among the Hebrews taken to Babylonia. 
It manifested itself at home in excitement over a plan or¬ 
ganized among the neighboring kingdoms of Ammon, 
Moab and Phoenicia to unite against the further encroach¬ 
ments of the king of Babylon. Against this mad design 
Jeremiah protested with all his power, and wrote urgently 
to the deported families in the east to adapt themselves to 
their situation, and avoid foolish notions of any early end 

21 2 Kings 24:8-16. 23 2 Kings 25:27-30. 

22 Jer. 13:19. 24 Ezek. 3:15. 

— 112 — 





Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


of their exile. 25 Tradition reported that Ezekiel at Tel-abib 
on the Chebar river tried to show to his fellow Hebrews the 
reasons why their deportation was not the end but only the 
beginning of the misfortunes of a city as wicked as Jerusalem, 
and that its total destruction was imminent. 26 Indeed he 
insisted that Judah’s sins exceeded those of apostate and de¬ 
vastated Israel, and that nothing short of its overthrow 
could satisfy the divine indignation. 27 

That tragedy befell the city and its surviving population 
a few years later, in 586 b.c. Zedekiah, the last of the sons 
of Josiah, could not learn the lesson which all the contacts 
with Assyria and Babylonia should have taught, that rebel¬ 
lion was futile and certain to bring heavy punishment. 
Stirred up by the false prophets who were always the grief 
and despair of Jeremiah, 28 and encouraged by messages from 
the exiles and promises from Ammon and Tyre, a revolt 
was undertaken. It ran only a brief and fatal course. In a 
few weeks Nebuchadrezzar and his army camped about the 
doomed city, and after a year and a half of desperate defense 
it fell, and its homes, its market places, its palaces and its 
temple, the pride of every Hebrew heart, went up in flames. 
The unhappy king, blinded and childless, was taken with 
his family and court to Babylon, whither also went all the 
officers and leaders, and what seemed a great company of 
common people. 29 A remnant of the community rallied at 
Mizpah under a governor named Gedaliah, but soon after- 

25 Jeremiah, chapts. 27, 29. 28 Jeremiah, chapt. 23. 

26 Ezekiel, chapts. 8, n. 29 2 Kings 24:18-25:21. 

27 Ezekiel, chapts. 16, 23; cf. Jer. 3:11. Professor Torrey believes that 
Ezekiel’s work lay in Jerusalem, not in Babylonia, and that the book in the 
present form is the product of a later age ( Pseudo-Ezekiel and the Original 
Prophecy, chapts. IV, V). 


—xi3— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


ward he was murdered by dissatisfied and ambitious revo¬ 
lutionaries, and many of those who had hoped to find some 
safety in the midst of these tragic events decided to take 
refuge in Egypt, whither so many of their brethren had 
gone in earlier years. They departed, taking with them 
the reluctant and protesting Jeremiah, whose last days were 
spent in the land of the Nile. 30 

Thus came to an end the Hebrew state, and thus that 
fatal dispersion of the nation into many lands was given its 
latest and most violent impulse. There was of course a con¬ 
siderable population remaining in Judah. In spite of the 
strong language employed to describe the deportations, it 
is evident that the largest single group of Hebrews stayed in 
Palestine. They could do nothing else. They were without 
resources in the plundered land. They were defenseless 
against the neighboring tribes which crept in, covetous of the 
territory and rejoicing in the ruin of its capital. The total 
company of those who were taken to the east was large, 
though their numbers cannot even be estimated. They made 
up the second section of the dispersed people. Of these the 
larger number, after a period of homesickness and heart¬ 
break, adjusted themselves to their new conditions, and were 
gradually absorbed into the resident population. They be¬ 
came reconciled to circumstances which they presently dis¬ 
covered were far more favorable than those of little Pales¬ 
tine. They had come to a country which touched with its 
trading interests all the lands, and whose cities were centers 
of incredible luxury and power. The gods of such lands they 
decided must be incomparably greater than the Jahveh 


30 2 Kings 25:22-26; Jeremiah, chapts. 40-44. 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


whom their fathers had served. They lost the upward look 
to the hills from whence had come their strength, and ac¬ 
quired the outward look along the rich and promising high¬ 
ways of the world. They did not abandon their faith at 
once. In communities like that at Tel-abib, here and there 
in Mesopotamia, they probably continued for some genera¬ 
tions to keep alive the memories of Zion, and some of these 
little centers furnished direction to the nascent Judaism that 
sprung up on the old soil. But the great majority of the 
people, like the exiles of the northern kingdom, were assimi¬ 
lated to the populations around them and absorbed into the 
life of Babylonia, Medea and Persia. 

The word “ exile ” has been used familiarly to designate 
this period of dispersion and the group of people who were 
taken from Palestine to Babylonia after the fall of the city. 
They were supposed to have returned after something more 
than a half century of absence. As a matter of fact there 
was no such period and no such return. The word “ exile ” 
as the designation of a period is a misnomer, and in reality 
has no value in a scientific study of the great dispersion. It 
represents only the patriotic beliefs, or at least the represen¬ 
tations, of the Chronicler at a time so late that authentic 
records were unobtainable, and romance had secured the 
right of way. The Chronicler’s narrative of the period from 
the fall of Jerusalem onward is as much of a romance as is 
the picture the book of Joshua gives of the original occupa¬ 
tion of Canaan. It is written to support the view that the 
Hebrews in Babylonia, after the seventy years foretold by 
Jeremiah, 31 returned practically en masse, and reconstructed 

31 Jer. 25:11; 29:10. 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the city of Jerusalem and the province of Judah. This 
theory needs careful examination before it is adopted as the 
actual pattern of the facts, Fortunately, as in the case of 
the entrance into Canaan, we have other and far more 
nearly contemporary documents by means of which it may 
be checked. The prophets Haggai and Zachariah are the 
historical sources for this period. The problem here sug¬ 
gested will be discussed further on. 

The Hebrews who took refuge in Egypt after the fall 
of Jerusalem constituted a third section of the people, if 
they were sufficiently aware of one another actually to form 
a community. The testimony of the book of Jeremiah is 
to the effect that the prophet when taken away from Judah 
found a group settled in lower Egypt, not far from the 
northern border. 32 There had been constant intercourse 
between Judah and Egypt since the days of Isaiah, and in¬ 
deed the contacts covered a much longer period, as the 
stories of Solomon’s Egyptian queen and Jeroboam’s friendly 
relations with the Pharaoh of his day make clear. Hebrew 
mercenaries were employed in Egypt in the century before 
Jeremiah’s time, and the Elephantine papyri make evident 
the fact that as early as 407 b.c. a Hebrew colony connected 
with an Egyptian fortress as far south as the first cataract had 
suffered an assault on the temple of Yahu by heathen priests, 
and was appealing to brethren in Palestine for aid to rebuild 
it. 33 Such a settlement must have been started sometime 
previously. The correspondence reveals no knowledge of 
the law of a central sanctuary, and apparently other gods 

32 Jcr. 44:1. 

33 Barton, Archaeology and the Bible, pp. 387 ff. Price, The Monuments 
and the Old Testament, pp. 388 ff. 

— Il6 — 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


shared with Yahu or Jahveh the regard of the worshipers. 
It is of course possible that these military colonists may have 
come from northern Israel after the fall of Samaria. The 
fact that they are called “Jews” implies merely that, like 
all other emigrants or refugees from Palestine, and in fact 
all the people of Judah in the post-Josian period, they were 
known by the name of the province with which they were 
associated. This was a geographical term, not a racial or a 
religious designation, and had only remote connection with 
the later Jewish race and its beliefs. What finally became 
of the community at Elephantine is not known. The cos¬ 
mopolitan character indicated by the proper names would 
suggest that no particular regard was paid to racial exclusive¬ 
ness. It probably met the fate of absorption which befell 
other groups. But in days when Judaism was growing to 
its full strength, the Egyptian Jews were a numerous body, 
a temple was built in Alexandria by Onias III in 170 b.c. and 
according to tradition stood for two and a half centuries. 
Literary contacts between Egypt and Palestine, as illus¬ 
trated in the close resemblance of Psalm 104 to the Amarna 
“ Hymn to Aton,” 34 the fact that the Septuagint was trans¬ 
lated in Egypt, and that Philo, who shares with Ezra the 
honor of founding Judaism, lived there, give to that land 
still further significance in a study of Hebrew and Jewish 
history. 

The period following the destruction of Jerusalem was 
marked by a large amount of literary activity among the 
Hebrews scattered in different parts of the orient, but chiefly 
among those in Babylonia. The collapse of the national 

34 Breasted, History of Egypt, pp. 371 - 6 * 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


institutions stimulated the production of such material as 
would preserve the story of the past. Much of course was 
lost in the confusion and terror of the time. The many 
references to the “ chronicles of the kings of Israel ” and of 
Judah in the books of Samuel and Kings are tantalizing 
hints of the amount of historical and other material that 
was accessible to the writers of these books but is no longer 
available. 35 Probably the Samuel-Kings prophetic records, 
originally one work, were among the first to take form after 
the dispersion. They seem to have been written somewhere 
in the east 36 and they bring the narrative down to the over¬ 
throw of Jerusalem and add one incident of thirty years later. 
There were psalms and proverbs which began to be gathered 
into collections, and the code of Deuteronomy, which was 
the law of Judah from the days of Josiah, no doubt received 
fresh study and commentation in groups of the dispersed 
Israelites. All writings of this character that helped to 
keep alive the memories of the past were cherished with 
added affection now that the nation was no more. 

To all the Hebrews of that generation, as to those of 
former times, came the problem of deciding between loyalty 
to the institutes and ideals of their fathers, and adoption of 
the customs and beliefs of the people among whom they 
were scattered. The first was naturally the impulse of the 
more devoted. It was that impulse and the exhortations they 
received from prophetic and priestly leaders among them 
that kept alive the Hebrew spirit in some of these separated 
communities. These were the rare souls who regarded 

35 Willett, The Bible Through the Centuries, pp. 17, 24, 35, 242. 

36 Cf. 1 Kings 4:24 (Heb. “ beyond the river ”), and the Babylonian 
reckoning of 2 Kings 25:27. 

— Il8 — 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


themselves as custodians and trustees of the national tradi¬ 
tions. 37 The second was the easier and the more common 
course. Why should they retain their loyalty to a kingdom 
that was no more and a God who had apparently left them 
to their own fate? Such a God must either be impotent 
or indifferent. In either case it was easy, after the first an¬ 
guish of the tragedy was over, to adjust themselves to the 
life about them, which in most cases held all the lure of 
heathen practices and idolatries. Had it not been for the 
extraordinary heroism of certain devoted leaders, priests and 
prophets, it is difficult to believe that there could have been 
any survival. As it was, that survival of faithful ones di¬ 
minished with the years and ultimately perished or took 
other forms. With the destruction of the temple the priestly 
ministries became impossible. Sacrifice and pilgrimage 
were abandoned. The practice of prayer, fasting, Sabbath 
observance, and even circumcision, all of which were made 
an obligatory part of the later Judaism, were observed, if at 
all, in a languid and half-hearted way. Indeed the writers 
of the Priest Code insisted that the Sabbath had never been 
kept by the nation, and that this was the chief cause of the 
eclipse of its life. It must pay for the neglected Sabbaths of 
past generations. 38 

Meantime Palestine was increasingly given over to the 
stranger. The northern section was populated by a mixture 
of Hebrew and heathen life which took the place of the 
kingdom of Israel, with the possible exception of the per¬ 
sisting community of the Samaritans. Into the little terri¬ 
tory that was formerly the kingdom of Judah eager adven- 

37 Jeremiah, chapt. 24. 38 Lev. 26:34, 35 > 43 J 2 Chron. 36:22. 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


turers from neighboring clans crept, covetous of the land and 
no longer in awe of Jerusalem. 39 Edomites made their way 
into the half-empty towns of the Negeb. From the trans- 
Jordan region came Ammonites and Moabites. From the 
sea-coast came Philistines; from the north came the peoples 
of Samaria and, as always, from the desert came in the 
nomads seeking a home on a more productive soil. The 
Hebrew contingent remaining in the land, though the most 
numerous group left from the national debacle, was at the 
same time the least resourceful. The decline and fall of 
Judah had left little on which to build hopes of any revival 
of the state. It was a time of almost complete extinction 
of the old life. 

The next few years are voiceless, unless one finds in 
the Psalms echoes of still deeper tragedies. The city of the 
fathers lay waste and its gates were burned with fire. The 
country was a desolation, as compared with its former pros¬ 
perity. Ezekiel knew of conditions in Palestine, and his 
description of it is vivid. The nations have made Judah 
desolate on every side. They boast that the ancient heights 
are theirs. The cities are forsaken and are becoming a prey 
and a derision to those about them. The Edomites have 
appointed the land to themselves for a possession. 40 To all 
appearances the chapter of Israel’s life was closed. 

Yet the nation was not dead, for prophetic voices were 
heard in the east encouraging the scattered people to waken 
from their despair and claim the blessing of deliverance. 
Ezekiel, who spent the first years of his pastorate in breaking 
down the false expectations cherished by his fellow Hebrews 

89 Ezekiel, chapt. 25; 33: 24-29; chapt. 35. 40 Ezekiel, chapt. 36. 

—120 — 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


turned his efforts, after the fall of the city and the collapse of 
hope, to the task of reviving courage and assuring them of an 
early renascence of their institutions. The land was to be 
swept clean of its heathen inhabitants. Israel was to be given 
a new spirit, and a holy city with a new temple was to replace 
the one that had fallen. On the basis of the codes of the 
past he constructed a law of priestly holiness, the ideal con¬ 
stitution of the coming restored community. 41 A few years 
later, when Cyrus the Great was already hovering on the 
frontiers of Babylonia, another prophet, unknown by name, 
delivered his heartening message to the surviving Hebrews 
in that land. He assured them that the time of their deliv¬ 
erance was at hand, that Jahveh was incomparably stronger 
than the gods of Babylon, and that the servant of Jahveh, 
the nation despised and broken, was yet to achieve its destiny 
in the redemption of Israel and the world. 42 

Such anticipations of national revival were the prophetic 
theme of the time. They are confident in the oracles of 
Jeremiah; they are elaborated in the blue-prints of Ezekiel; 
they are redolent in the messages of the Second Isaiah. But 
these prophetic dreams were never realized; or were re¬ 
alized in a manner that would little have satisfied the long¬ 
ings of those few loyal souls who yet held to the national 
hope. They were in fact highly perplexing to men who lived 
in a later age, and tried to reconcile these large expectations 
with the depressing facts. The devices to which they were 
driven find an illustration in the scheme of “weeks” used 
by the author of Daniel. 43 In reality it was not from the 

41 Ezekiel, chapts. 40-48. 43 Daniel, chapt. 9. 

42 Isaiah, chapts. 40-55. 

—121 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


east but from the soil of Palestine itself that the last heroic 
efforts of Judah’s life took their rise. 

The summons of the prophets of the age fell upon 
inattentive ears. The theory that the expatriates from 
Palestine rose in a body and returned to the land of their 
fathers is as romantic and unfounded as many others that 
have been imposed upon biblical history. It is not tenable in 
the light of the facts freely spread on the records of the 
time. It is indeed the view proposed by the Chronicler cen¬ 
turies later, with his tendency to idealize the past and to 
trace all contemporary institutions to the ancient Hebrew 
life. But appeal must be taken from his theory to the facts 
to which he himself is witness, and to the testimony of the 
prophets who were participants in the actual events. 

In 538 b.c. Cyrus the Great came to the throne of Baby¬ 
lon. Soon after he issued an edict permitting the various 
peoples of his realm to return to their former homes, and 
take with them their gods and other sacred objects. This 
was a reversal of the Assyrian and Babylonian policy of ex¬ 
patriation. The account of this matter given in the books 
of Nehemiah and Ezra, pendent to the books of Chronicles, 
implies that a special firman was granted the people of 
Judah living in Babylonia, that there was a spontaneous up¬ 
rising of the Hebrew community with enthusiasm for a 
return to Palestine, that a company numbering more than 
forty thousand made the journey, and that those who did 
not go aided the departing pilgrims with gifts for the new 
temple to be erected in Jerusalem. This numerous com¬ 
pany is said to have set forth under the leadership of a cer¬ 
tain Sheshbazzar, presumably a descendant of the line of 


—122 — 





Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


David and an appointee of Cyrus to be governor of Judah. 
They took with them the sacred vessels carried away from 
Jerusalem at the time the temple was destroyed by Nebu¬ 
chadrezzar. 44 Soon after another company made the journey 
under the direction of two leaders, Zerubbabel and Joshua. 
It may be that Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel were the same, 
or that the latter was a nephew of the former. In two sec¬ 
tions of the Chronicler’s appendices to his main work, 45 
there is given a list of those who are supposed to have come 
from Babylonia to Jerusalem with these leaders. 

But these lists are manifestly census reports of the total 
population of Judah at a very much later time. This is 
shown by several outstanding features of the dual enumera¬ 
tion. One is that the company of the returning people is 
said to have reached the incredible number of forty-two 
thousand three hundred and sixty; whereas the total popula¬ 
tion of Judah in the reign of Zedekiah could not have ex¬ 
ceeded twenty-five thousand, as estimated by Guthe. An¬ 
other is the alleged distribution of this great company in the 
various places where they had formerly dwelt. The state¬ 
ment is quite explicit: “These are the children of the 
province that went up out of the captivity of those that had 
been carried away whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Baby¬ 
lon had carried away, and that returned unto Jerusalem and 
Judah every one unto his city/' 46 A study of the list makes 
it clear that it included the total population of Judah at 
some date late enough for the people to have settled in the 
localities named, and established something of a community 

44 Ezra i:i— ii. 

45 Ezra, chapt. 2; Nehemiah, chapt. 7. 

— 123 — 


46 Ezra 2:1; Neh. 7:6. 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


and family life. In other words it embraces the entire com¬ 
plex of people living in the province at the time when the 
Chronicler wrote, at least two centuries later. 

There is not the slightest evidence that a single person 
who was taken away to Babylonia at the time of the fall of 
the city ever returned, and there is every natural reason to 
doubt such a probability. But the clearest evidence is fur¬ 
nished by the Chronicler’s list itself in its statement that those 
who arrived in Judah came with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehe- 
miah, Azariah (evidently a variant of Ezra) and others who 
are named. Considering the fact that the work of Nehemiah 
and Ezra fell in a period at least a century later than that of 
Zerubbabel and Joshua, the statement resembles the naive 
reports of some chroniclers of the crusades, to the effect that 
an army of knights went out to Palestine under the leader¬ 
ship of Godfrey, Raymond, Baldwin, Richard of England, 
Frederick Barbarossa and St. Louis of France in a concerted 
effort and a unified body, despite the fact that there were 
at least eight of these tragic adventures, and that they cov¬ 
ered a period of at least two centuries. Even in these regards 
the parallel fails, for the crusades were veritable expeditions 
whose historic reality is a commonplace of European annals, 
whereas the so-called “return” of the Hebrews from the 
east seems to have been a romance of the later times. That 
there were groups of Hebrews who made their way to Judah 
in the years of its struggle to survive need not be doubted. 
Such intercourse between Palestine and the farther orient 
was not infrequent at any period, and patriotic interest 
in the land and its fortunes would have induced some at least 
to heed the urgent exhortations of prophets to go back and 


— 124 — 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


take part in the rehabilitation of Zion. But the appeals made 
by the Second Isaiah to his fellow exiles to return to Judah 
show their indifference to the enterprise. 47 They had taken 
Jeremiah’s letter all too seriously! They were little con¬ 
cerned with Israel’s historic mission to the nations. At best 
it was a desperate venture, demanding courage and sacri¬ 
fice, a venture comparable to the most difficult of missionary 
enterprises in modern times. 

The real impulse to undertake the reconstruction of the 
capital came not from the arrival of pilgrims from Baby¬ 
lonia but from within the little community of Judah. The 
more favorable attitude of the Persian empire under Cyrus 
may well have put heart into the survivors of the nation in 
the province. At least we are in possession of the testimony 
of two prophetic leaders who were contemporary with the 
events, and therefore competent witnesses. Under the in¬ 
fluence of Haggai and Zechariah the shattered group in the 
land gathered a measure of courage and began to dream of a 
new beginning. 48 Already they were taking the name of 
“ Jews ” from their little territory around the site of the 
ruined Jerusalem. In the later books of the Old Testament 
the name is applied to the inhabitants of the old southern 
kingdom, who may well have borne it at any time subse¬ 
quent to the fall of Samaria. In the later writings like 
Nehemiah, Ezra, Esther and Daniel it was used as referring 
to the Hebrews in other lands. It was a title derived from 
the locality, Judah, and not as yet from any unique religious 


47 Isa. 48:20, 21; 52:11, 12, etc. 

48 Ezra 5:1, 2; Haggai, chapts. 1, 2; Zechariah, chapts. 1-8 (the section 
of the book that relates to the ministry of the prophet). 


— 125 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


significance. That later meaning arose from other con¬ 
siderations. 

The first efforts of the faithful in the province were di¬ 
rected toward the rebuilding of the temple. This was to 
them the symbol of the ancient institutions of Israel which 
they were endeavoring to revive. The coming of pilgrims 
from the east bearing vessels and gifts for the sanctuary 
must have given fresh stimulus to their enterprise, however 
few these pilgrims may have been. They brought with them 
two men who represented the old official life, Zerubbabel 
of the Davidic stock and Joshua, a priest. The hearts of the 
people in the little company were filled with a great hope. 
Had not all the prophets foretold the restoration of Israel, 
and its return from all the lands to which it had been scat¬ 
tered? Had not Isaiah promised that Jahveh would raise 
his hand to recover the remnant that remained of his peo¬ 
ple, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, 
from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath and from the lands 
by the sea ? Had he not assured them that the two sundered 
kingdoms of Israel and Judah should be once more united, 
and freed from jealousy and hostility they would swoop 
down on the shoulder of the Philistines on the west, and to¬ 
gether they would plunder the children of the east, Ammon, 
Moab and Edom ? 49 The oracles of Ezekiel and the Second 
Isaiah had circulated in the province and had filled the 
people with like hopes. 50 Poor and few as they were, they 
would begin the revival of Judah. 

In the two short prophetic records which tell the story 
of this time some things are made clear. Beyond the refer- 

49 Isa. 11:11-14. 60 Ezek. 37:15; Isa. 40:9-11; 48:20, 21. 

— 126 — 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


ence to Zerubbabel and Joshua, who are accepted loyally as 
their official leaders, there is no reference to any arrivals from 
the east. It is the “ remnant ” that is constantly in the minds 
of these men, the people who have remained in the land, 
and are now its only hope. The time seems favorable, for 
the rule of the new king, Darius, has not yet been firmly 
established. There are ardent expectations that the Persian 
empire will collapse and Judah be left to itself. The two 
prophets are confident that these hopes will be realized. 
Meantime the temple must be rebuilt, and their words are 
directed to the sacrificial efforts that are required for that 
achievement. A beginning was made with the foundations 
of the sanctuary. We are dependent on the Chronicler for 
this portion of the story, and after his manner he invests 
it with the pomp and circumstance of priestly ritual. Where 
the altar had first been erected they now laid out the founda¬ 
tions for the new building. But even the Chronicler cannot 
suppress the fact that when the old men of the region who 
had seen the former temple in its glory looked upon the 
modest size and limited preparations for the new building, 
they wept aloud. 51 It took four years of unceasing effort on 
the part of Haggai and his colleague to secure the comple¬ 
tion of the building. In fact the impoverished colony was 
hardly able to finish the project after twenty years from 
the first royal permission. In this and every other enter¬ 
prise that was undertaken for the benefit of the city they 
seem to have had little help from the incompetent leaders, 
Zerubbabel and Joshua, to whom they endeavored con¬ 
sistently to maintain their loyalty. 

51 Ezra 3:1-13. 

— 127 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


From that time onward there was a slow and rather dis¬ 
couraging growth of the city. The author of Daniel speaks 
of it as “ troublous times.” 52 Zerubbabel disappeared from 
the picture, and Persian governors had control. All hopes 
of independence vanished. The expectations of the prophets 
had not been realized, and had become increasingly impos¬ 
sible of realization. The city was unprotected, walls were 
out of the question, the people were few and disheartened, 
and even the temple was neglected. The Hebrew language 
was passing away. It gradually gave place to Aramaic in 
Palestine. As early as the time of Hezekiah the people of 
Jerusalem appear to have understood that commercial 
tongue, which later became the lingua franca of the entire 
near east. 63 Intermarriage with non-Hebrews was increas- 
ingly prevalent. The little anonymous fragment called 
“Malachi” is an eloquent commentary upon conditions in 
Jerusalem at some period after the days of the two prophets 
Haggai and Zechariah. These were years from which few 
voices have survived, unless they are to be found in certain 
of the Psalms and in fragments in the prophetic books. The 
only hint of time in Malachi is the reference to a recent 
calamity that had befallen Edom, perhaps an attack of desert 
tribes that drove the Edomites again and farther into the 
territories of Judah. 54 The conditions in Jerusalem were 
more than depressing. The temple service was slack in the 
hands of priests who were meagrely supported, and the gifts 
were so poor that no one would dare present them to the 
Persian governor. There were but few faithful ones who 

62 Dan. 9:25. 

63 2 Kings 18:26; the Hebrew of the text is “the Aramaic language.” 

64 Mai. 1:1-5. 

—128 — 




Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


held out against the general decline. It appeared that noth¬ 
ing but a divine visitation could bring a better day. 

This is the last view one has of Hebrew life in Palestine. 
It was but feebly connected with the great days of Israel 
and Judah. The scattered people of the covenant were in¬ 
creasingly remote from the sources of their national life in 
locality, in kinship and in religious interests. It was only 
in small and dispersed communities that the spirit of loyalty 
and devotion remained. Their great legacy of monotheism, 
of ethical passion and of obedience to the God of their 
fathers had been committed to a literature that was to sur¬ 
vive their extinction and prove itself the seed of a new and 
larger monotheism, the prized possession alike of Jew, 
Christian and Moslem. 

It is nothing to the discredit of any people that it should 
fulfill its historic mission and pass away. Many nations have 
gone that road. There is not a Hittite or Babylonian in the 
world today. A microscopic group of Copts claim a remote 
connection with the Egyptians. The modern Greek is a far 
cry, both as to racial stock and language, from the Greek of 
the days of Pericles. The race is a mixture of Macedonian, 
Balkan, Albanian and Turk, with a language which, though 
it still employs the ancient alphabet, is really a compound 
of Greek, Latin, Italian and Romance, Slav, Wallachian, Al¬ 
banian, Turkish and Arabic. 55 The Roman race is sup¬ 
posed to be perpetuated in the modern Italians, and Mus- 

65 “ This race, which admirers of ancient Greece consider the descendants 
of Pericles are ethnically further removed from the ancient Greeks than modern 
Turks are from their Asiatic ancestry” — Halide Edib, Turkey Faces West, 
p. 58. Prof. Lybyer, in the Journal of International Relations, April 1922, p. 463, 
speaks of the Greeks of today as “ a modern group of very mixed descent.” 


—129 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


solini has done his best to strengthen the belief. But from 
the time of the last of the emperors the Roman race com¬ 
pletely disappeared, and the Latin tongue became the broken 
dialect of a mixed people, out of which the modern Italian 
speech was to grow, decadent in form, degenerate in 
strength, but renascent in a grace and beauty which the 
Latin never possessed. First the vast population of slaves 
brought in their civilized and barbarous words, Greek, Ara¬ 
maic, Arabic, Celtic, German and Slav. Then the Goth 
came and filled all Italy with his rough language for a 
hundred years. The Latin of the Roman mass is the Latin 
of slaves and tradesmen in Rome between the first and the 
fifth centuries. Compare it with the Latin of Livy and 
Tacitus. It is not the same speech, and to read the one by 
no means implies an understanding of the other. 56 In spite 
of the fact that both Greeks and Latins have maintained a 
measure of continuity in racial tradition through the cen¬ 
turies, their lands have been swept by wave after wave of 
foreign population whose precipitates formed strata like 
those of buried cities. Far from preserving the classic blood 
and speech, Italy is today a complex of changed and chang¬ 
ing peoples. 

Similar is the break in the relation of Hebrews and 
Jews. Quite aside from his separate origin, the Jew had 
none even of the advantages of continuity of environment 
and speech which with all their altered circumstances the 
Greeks and Latins enjoyed. As will be seen later, for a few 
centuries only did he have a land he could call his own. 
The Hebrew language began to pass away as a living tongue 

56 Cf. Crawford, F. M., Ava Roma Immortalis, p. 42. 

— 130 — 





Decline and Fall of Judah: Close of Hebrew History 


with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. In the lands 
of dispersion the local languages were adopted. There were 
those who kept alive the use of Hebrew for generations, out 
of veneration for the ideals of Israel, just as in modern days 
Jewish groups have revived the effort to speak and write the 
speech of the Old Testament. Greek widely spread by the 
conquests of Alexander became the common literary tongue 
of Jews as well as of other races. The Jews scattered 
throughout the world naturally took up the tongues of their 
environment. The most commonly used dialect for the 
past few centuries is the Yiddish, a name derived from 
Judah, but actually a composite language, partaking of ele¬ 
ments of German, Russian and Spanish, with admixture of 
Hebrew and English, and written in the Aramaic alphabet 
which superseded the Hebrew. 

It is no discredit to the Jew that he is not a Hebrew, or 
that he was able to hold a country of his own for only four 
and a half centuries. Few nations in the long range of his¬ 
tory have done as well. In reality he has wrought the 
miracle of survival through later ages that would have seen 
the end of most peoples. He has passed through tragedies 
that would have overwhelmed less persistent and loyal races. 
He represents the universal element in humanity. He be¬ 
longs to every land and his wide dispersion has given him 
a universality of character possessed by no other people. But 
most of all he has maintained his faith in the God of his 
love, in the scriptures which are the chief classics of his re¬ 
ligion, and in the conviction that he has a mission to his 
own scattered tribes and to all the nations of the world. 



V 

THE RISE OF JUDAISM 

There is no precise time that can be set as the end of 
Hebrew history and the beginning of Jewish institutions. It 
is sometimes suggested that the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. 
is a suitable date for this event. But it was not an event; it 
was a process. Hebrews were living in scattered commu¬ 
nities both in Palestine and in the wider world many years 
after the destruction of the holy city; Hebrew writers were 
making their contributions to the literature of their people 
during some generations following that event, and Hebrews 
of priestly tradition were elaborating the laws of the nation 
on the lines traced by earlier prophets in hopes of a national 
revival. These groups and activities gradually faded out, sur¬ 
viving only in a few choice spirits and the literature, some 
of which has come to us in the documents of the Old 
Testament. 

Of the beginnings of Judaism it is possible to speak with 
greater precision. The activities of the patriot Nehemiah and 
the priestly reformer Ezra furnish the conspicuous land¬ 
marks of that great new adventure which has contributed 
so notably to the spiritual culture of the world. Particularly 
in the energetic measures taken by the second of these lead¬ 
ers are found the origins of one of the most significant re¬ 
ligious movements in history. The two processes went on 
together. As Hebrew life slowly declined and expired, the 


— 132 — 


The Rise of Judaism 


Jewish enterprise took form. Meagre as were its earliest 
manifestations, and difficult as were the first stages of its 
development, it had within it the elements of a vitality and 
courage which were to overcome all obstacles and send it 
forth into areas never reached by the older faith. Like 
Christianity in later years, it took its inspiration from that 
older culture, though in a different manner. In that sense 
the Hebrew ideals came to fresh expression in the two 
daughter movements. 

As will be seen, the very combination of elements that 
went to make up the Jewish people and Judaism were cal¬ 
culated to produce a virile and aggressive evolution both of 
racial stock and of cultural characteristics. This was of 
advantage. So far as stock inheritance was involved the 
Jews of the reviving Jerusalem owed little to the exhausted 
and impoverished population of Judah. Far less did they 
profit by any large increment of returning Hebrews from 
Egypt or the east. Many were expected, but few actually 
arrived. It was a new people, an amalgam of many races, 
but for that very reason capable of enthusiasms and initia¬ 
tives impossible among a pallid and passionless citizenship. 
No group in history has ever utilized more completely the 
limited advantages it possessed in location and heritage to 
create a fresh and far-reaching complex of interests. There 
is no need to claim for the Jew a fictitious racial inheritance. 
He has ample honor of another sort. His contributions to 
world thinking and leadership have been sufficient to assure 
him a place in the sun. He does not require the borrowed 
glory of another race. 

It is a misuse of terms to speak of the Hebrews of the 


*33 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


Old Testament as Jews, just as it is quite unhistorical to apply 
the term Hebrew to the modern Jew. It is true that some 
writers who deal with the religion of Israel speak of it as 
Judaism, and permit the term to describe the entire sweep of 
both Hebrew and Jewish history. And there are instances 
in which authors have described the writings of the Old 
Testament under the title of “ Jewish literature.” But these 
practices cannot be justified on any grounds of historical 
exactness. It would be as appropriate to speak of the Eng¬ 
lish people of the times of Henry VIII as “ Americans,” 
as to describe the Hebrews of Isaiah’s day as Jews. One 
might as well include the writings of the Elizabethan 
age in a work on “ American Literature ” as to speak of 
the Old Testament as a Jewish document. Similarly it 
would be more fitting to apply any one of the titles, 
English, Scotch, Irish, German or Italian to the average 
American of today than to speak of the modern Jew as a 
Hebrew. In the former instance there is some connection 
with all of these and other European peoples. In the latter 
there is only the most remote and legendary relationship. 
The fifth century b.c. witnessed the gradual ending of one 
chapter and the somewhat dramatic beginning of the other. 
The records are scanty and inadequate. So far as authentic 
testimony is concerned, one passes directly from the writ¬ 
ings of Haggai and Zechariah in the days of Darius I to the 
personal memoirs of Nehemiah in the reign of Artaxerxes I, 
a century later. Meantime the dynasty of David had disap¬ 
peared, Jerusalem had been the victim of fresh disasters, and 
Hebrew life had come to its end. 

The literary records that have attempted most directly to 


— 134 — 




The Rise of Judaism 


deal with this transition, indeed to avoid the implication 
that there was any change, are the books of Chronicles-Ezra- 
Nehemiah, which are recognized as being a continuous 
work. The date of this writing must be as late as the days 
of Alexander the Great, as many of its characteristics and 
references show . 1 It appears to have a single editor or au¬ 
thor, who has subjected his materials to the requirements 
of his theory of the history. That theory has as its basis the 
defense of the racial purity of the Jews of his day against 
all suspicions of mixed blood or any contamination from 
the non-Jewish populations around them; and the vindica¬ 
tion of the true Israel in opposition to the dangerous pre¬ 
tensions of the Samaritans who claimed to be the lineal 
heritors of the Hebrews. In order to impress this reading 
of the history it is assumed by this author that the entire 
population of Judah was expatriated by Nebuchadrezzar 
after the fall of the city; that if it had not been for the con¬ 
siderable company of exiles who came back from Babylonia 
in the reign of Cyrus with Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel and 
Joshua, and in that of Artaxerxes with Ezra and Nehemiah, 
there would have been no revival and no Judah . 2 

1 Josephus {Ant. n, 8, 5) describes the meeting of Alexander and 
Jaddua, the highpriest (Neh. 12:10, 11); notice such features in the document 
as: “King of Assyria,” Ezra 6:22; “Cyrus, King of Persia,” Ezra 1:1; “Darius 
the Persian,” referred to as belonging to the distant past, Neh. 12:22; references 
to Nehemiah and Ezra as living in an earlier period, Neh. 12:26; mention of the 
daric as a current coin, 1 Chron. 29:7; the six (some commentators count eleven) 
generations after Zerubbabel, 1 Chron. 3:19-24. 

2 It will be noticed that Haggai and Zechariah make no mention of any 
“ return ” of importance, and further that the number of those whom the Chroni¬ 
cler describes as having “ returned,” nearly fifty thousand, was far greater than 
the total population of Judah before the fall of Jerusalem, or the number after 
Nehemiah’s reforms, which might fairly be placed at ten thousand. Furthermore, 
such a population was far more numerous than the devastated land could support. 


— i 35“ 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


According to his theory the rebuilding of the walls was 
begun by Ezra and finished by Nehemiah, 3 thus putting 
these two leaders in the order which he regards as necessary 
to maintain the priority of the priestly over the lay element 
in the entire enterprise. In his view the law of Moses, un¬ 
changed from its original form as given by the lawgiver, was 
the norm of teaching and conduct among all Hebrews every¬ 
where, and only needed to be enforced in the reviving but 
uninstructed Judah by some recognized authority. This 
was Ezra’s major function. In a word, the chief object of 
the Chronicler was to insist that the Jewish community of 
his day in Jerusalem somewhere in the fourth century b.c. 
was continuous in its racial integrity and its legal interests 
with the Israel of classic times. For this reason the work 
of Zerubbabel as the restorer of Jerusalem and the temple is 
idealized; Jahveh has returned to the temple built by this 
leader, the city has been purified and the hopes of the proph¬ 
ets are in process of realization. 

The interests of the Chronicler were with the priestly 
and Levitical ministries of the nascent state. There is proba¬ 
bility in the view that he was of Levite stock, and perhaps 
belonged to one of the temple groups of singers. The em¬ 
phasis placed by him on the ritual of worship from the 
days of David onward is proof of this interest. Throughout 
his narrative, which like all good histories begins at creation, 
he reveals his constant concern for genealogical traditions 
and lists, and for the liturgical features of Hebrew life. 4 

3 Ezra 9:9; Neh. 6:15. But it is clear from Nehemiah’s account that 
no earlier attempt had been made to rebuild the walls of the city (Cf. Neh. 
2:13, 18). 

4 Note the prominence of priests and Levites in 1 Chron. 6:1-3 as con¬ 
trasted with 2 Sam. 6:1, 2; in 1 Chron. 15:1-18; cf. 2 Sam. 6:12-15; and the 

—136— 





The Rise of Judaism 


In those sections of his work which are parallel to the 
Samuel-Kings records the chief points of difference are in¬ 
stances in which kings exhibited their devotion to the law 
and were prospered in consequence, or disregarded it and 
were punished. 

The northern tribes are hardly included in the purview 
of the work, since they are regarded as apostate, defiled and 
extinct. They are no more significant than Moab or Edom. 
“Jahveh is not with Israel,” is the oracle to Judah. * * * 5 6 * The 
temple and Jerusalem are the objects of supreme divine so¬ 
licitude. The elaborate genealogies of the first nine chapters 
of the work, which cover the time from Adam to Saul and 
David, and the two elaborate lists of names in the sections 
now separated from the main document under the names of 
Ezra and Nehemiah, disclose the unfailing interest of the 
writer in that order of material and his desire not only to 
utilize but to devise testimony of this sort. Even a casual 
examination of Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah makes clear the 
introduction of such material wherever it can be worked in. 
The author was either closely connected with circles in 
which genealogical researches were pursued with enthusi¬ 
asm, or he engaged in the activity for his own satisfaction. 
The Chronicler’s style is marked by late characteristics, Ara¬ 
maic affinities and systematic exaggerations of numbers such 
as suggest that it is one of the latest documents of the Old 
Testament. 8 

lists, genealogical and geographical, in i Chronicles, chapts. 1-9, 25, 28; Ezra, 

chapts. 8, 10; Nehemiah, chapts. 10, n, 12; and especially the great duplicate 

census list in Ezra, chapt. 2 and Nehemiah, chapt. 7. 

6 2 Chron. 25:7. 

6 While keeping in mind the Chronicler’s main purpose, and his strong 

leaning toward the Levitical order, the reader will not fail to recognize the 


—137— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


The sources employed in the preparation of this work 
were primarily the Samuel-Kings documents of an earlier 
age. These were supplemented by other materials which 
are revealed by a comparison of this work with the older 
one, by the genealogical lists referred to, and by the mate¬ 
rial now embodied in Ezra-Nehemiah. In these later por¬ 
tions certain sections are in Aramaic, * * * * 7 a characteristic which 
is likewise found in the late apocalypse of Daniel. More¬ 
over some parts of this material purport to be personal 
memoirs of the two men, Nehemiah and Ezra. 8 The portion 
ascribed to the former appears to be authentic, a real journal 
of the great patriot. The part in which Ezra is represented 
as speaking in the first person bears no such marks of au¬ 
thenticity, but seems to be for the most part if not completely 
the work of the Chronicler himself. Furthermore, the ma¬ 
terial of the two sections shows signs of confused dates when 
compared with Haggai and Zechariah chapters 1-8, and 
also of dislocation from its original order. Careful study of 
the data has led many modern scholars to the conviction that 
the work of Nehemiah preceded that of Ezra and to a con¬ 
siderable degree laid the foundation for it. 9 The natural 
predilection of the Chronicler for the priestly order may 
have led him to present the material in this sequence, or it 
may have been merely the result of dislocation of the writ- 


independent character and value of many of the facts recorded by him. In not 

a few instances he has included material not found in the earlier records of 

Samuel-Kings, material which appears to be authentic and valuable. For in¬ 

stances, see the introductions and commentaries. 

7 Ezra 4:8-6: 18; 7:12-26. 

8 Of Nehemiah, Neh. 1:1-7:53; 13:4-31; of Ezra, Ezra 7:27-8:34. 

9 E.g. Bertholet, Buhl, Cheyne, Guthe, Van Hoonacker, Jahn, Kennett, 
Kent, Kosters, Marqart, Torrey, Wildeboer, etc. 

— 138 — 





The Rise of Judaism 


ings. In any event the rearrangement of the documents in 
logical and chronological order is one of the intricate and 
difficult problems of criticism, and has led to many varied 
conclusions. But the main lines of the author’s interest and 
method are evident. 

It was in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I (465-425 
b.c.), 10 that Nehemiah, chamberlain and friend of the king, 
received a visit from a group of men from Judah among 
whom was a kinsman of his own. They brought a distress¬ 
ing story of conditions in the province. The people were 
few in numbers, the remnant that had escaped the general 
dispersion. They were in great reproach and affliction. 
The temple service was at the lowest ebb, or had been com¬ 
pletely abandoned. The walls of the city were in ruins, as 
left by Nebuchadrezzar or by some later destroyer. The 
gates were burned. The population was a mixture of many 
clans, fragments of Hebrew and non-Hebrew families that 
had found refuge in the ruined city or its vicinity, but had 
little hope or courage. Naturally there was slight care 
for the national memories and traditions of Israel. Inter¬ 
marriage was common, and the distinctions between dif¬ 
ferent orders and strata of the social and official sort had 
largely faded out. The province was under the control of 
a Persian pasha who exacted from the people as much 
tribute and as many perquisites as he could secure. The 
merchant and artisan classes were facing difficult days. 
If the people outside of Jerusalem enjoyed any superior 
economic conditions it must have been due to the oppor¬ 
tunities which the soil and the pasturage afforded. The 

10 Neh. 1:1; 2 : 1 . 

— 139 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


life of Judah was like a candle whose flame had all but 
expired. 

The Chronicler has somewhat disguised these desperate 
conditions prevailing at the time of Nehemiah’s arrival. 
Ezra is his hero, and he not only affirms his prior arrival 
in Jerusalem, but assumes the revival of confidence that re¬ 
sulted from his energetic reforms. In reality nothing of 
the kind had occurred, and even the Chronicler discloses 
much of the despair that had fallen upon Judah. In this 
crisis the little band of devoted men presented their plea to 
Nehemiah who was doubtless the wealthiest and most in¬ 
fluential man of their race. His acceptance of the responsi¬ 
bility thus laid upon him involved departure from the scene 
of his interests and authority, and a heroic and sacrificial 
effort to meet a situation which to him and his friends must 
have appeared desperate. This decision and his subsequent 
career as governor in the forlorn little province mark him 
out as one of the most devoted, heroic and efficient leaders 
in the long story of religion. 

Arriving in Jerusalem in 445 b.c. on leave of absence 
from his duties at Susa, Nehemiah made a personal and pri¬ 
vate inspection of the ruined walls and decided that the first 
thing to be done was to rebuild them. 11 He had none of 
Zechariah’s confidence that Jahveh was a sufficient protec¬ 
tion for the city, or that its population was soon to be so 
great that no set of walls could contain it. 12 The imperative 
need of the city was inhabitants. The present weak and 
discouraged group living there gave no basis for a true re¬ 
vival of the place. Its people must come from the east, 

11 Neh. 2:11-16. 12 Zech. 2:1-5; 8:4, 5. 

— I40 — 




The Rise of Judaism 


whence he himself had come. He knew that there were 
scattered Hebrews in various parts of Babylonia and Persia. 
Perhaps they could be induced to migrate to Judah and take 
up the missionary task of its rehabilitation. So all the 
prophets had believed. But the people would not be at¬ 
tracted to a defenseless city. Walls were the first necessity. 
To the citizens and their leaders accordingly he made his 
appeal, and roused by the words and example of their 
governor they gave their assent to the plan. 

Yet there was little enthusiasm over the project. Al¬ 
most a century before the temple had been rebuilt after 
twenty years of struggle, and what had been the advan¬ 
tage? None of the promises so confidently made by Hag- 
gai and Zechariah had come to realization. The commu¬ 
nity was poorer and less numerous now than then, and the 
services of the sanctuary had become a burden and a mock¬ 
ery. Moreover at the time it was built they had received 
help from outside. There is no hint in the authentic records 
of that earlier period that there was any opposition from 
the Samaritans or any other group. Indeed it was the confi¬ 
dent hope of Zechariah that people from many nations 
would join themselves to Judah in its growth and entreat 
the favor of Jahveh. 13 Now however the situation was dif¬ 
ferent. The people were not enthusiastic, and outside there 
were bitter opponents of the attempt to fortify the city. 
A temple was not a menace; but walls meant a rival and 
a threat. 

The Chronicler has indicated that the opposition to the 
building enterprise covered the entire period from the days 

13 Zech. 2:11; 8:21. 


—141 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


of Cyrus and Zerubbabel; but there are difficulties in this 
view. There is no doubt however that the purposes of 
Nehemiah aroused instant antagonism. Sanballat of Beth- 
horon, a grandson of the Sanballat of the Elephantine papyri, 
Tobiah an Ammonite, and Geshmu an Arab or Edomite, 
were the chief adversaries. 14 To make matters more serious, 
they were related to families in Jerusalem, in accordance 
with the common practice of intermarriage. Naturally their 
friends and relatives in the city shared their views regarding 
the difficulty and futility of erecting walls. It was only the 
indomitable courage and energy of Nehemiah that prevailed 
over these adversaries and discouragements, and in the al¬ 
most incredible space of fifty-two days the walls were fin¬ 
ished. The narrative of the actual work on the walls, with 
the list of the classes and guilds who assisted, and their lo¬ 
cations, 15 is valuable as an archaeological record of the to¬ 
pography of Jerusalem in the Chronicler’s time, but hardly 
a valid index of the population in Nehemiah’s day. 

It is stated in the source that Nehemiah remained in 
Jerusalem for twelve years, then returned to the court in 
Persia, and once more came to Judah. 16 There are difficulties 
in accepting this version of the matter, and there is also 
the question as to whether the reforms he put in operation 
belonged to his first or his second residence in the province. 
It is perhaps unimportant to attempt complete and satisfac¬ 
tory arrangement of the dates. It is highly probable how¬ 
ever that without delay he undertook some radical improve¬ 
ments in the situation. The population of the city was 

14 Neh. 2:19; 4:1; 6:1; 13:28. 16 Neh. 2:1-11; 13:6, 7. 

15 Nehemiah, chapt. 12. 


— 142 — 





The Rise of Judaism 


much too small to utilize its new opportunities or to afford 
it protection. With masterful resolution he ordered one in 
ten of the people of the province to come into the city to 
live. 17 Proper steps were taken to guard the gates against 
surprise. 18 Taxes were levied for the support of the temple 
and its ministries, and its apartments were cleared of the 
belongings of those who had no rights there. 19 Rules were 
made for the proper observance of the Sabbath, and other 
reforms in priestly behavior were set in motion. 20 

But most of all, the governor was disquieted by the 
mixed character of the population of the city. 21 Apparently 
no efforts had been made to prevent intermarriage with 
Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Samaritans, Philistines and 
the other neighboring peoples. Of course this practice had 
always met the disapproval of the leaders of Israel in the 
days of Hebrew nationality, as a matter of public policy 
and good form. But even the laws of Deuteronomy, which 
seemed sufficiently explicit and drastic, were weakened by 
notable limitations, and as a matter of fact were never taken 
seriously. The prophet whose work is known under the 
title of Malachi reproved the people for the practice of 
mixed marriages, but apparently largely because of the in¬ 
justice to Hebrew women involved in the custom. In reality 
there never was any serious effort to preserve untainted the 
blood either of Israel as a whole or of Judah after the dis¬ 
persion. But that event led to reflection regarding the dan¬ 
ger of total extinction of the race. That danger was already 
past remedy, but at least some attempts at reform were pos- 

17 Neh. II :i. 20 Neh. 13:4-9. 28. 

18 Neh. 7:1-4. 21 Neh. 13:23-28. 

19 Neh. 13:4-9. 


— 143 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


sible, and Nehemiah used his undoubted authority to bring 
about a better state of affairs. He observed that the chil¬ 
dren of these mixed marriages were speaking a patois which 
was not the Aramaic of Judah, but a jargon of tongues. The 
measures employed by him to enforce his reforms seem 
forcible enough to have accomplished their purpose. If 
cursing men, plucking out their hair and chasing them out 
of the place could not bring results, what could ? In reality 
nothing could, and nothing did. The experience of Ezra 
soon afterward makes that clear. 

In what manner the work of the two reformers was con¬ 
nected, if at all, it is impossible to determine. Neither alludes 
to the other in any definite manner. Yet their activities fell 
in the same general period, and their objectives were similar. 
Nehemiah reconstructed the civic life of Jerusalem, and Ezra 
gave it a new constitution and cultus. Did the latter arrive 
during the absence of Nehemiah in Persia? In any event 
it is easy to perceive that such a beginning as had been made 
by the devoted and generous governor was a necessary pre¬ 
lude to the reforms of Ezra. It is possible that the latter 
arrived during the interval between the two periods of 
Nehemiah’s residence in Jerusalem, or that he came at 
the time of the governor’s return to the province. The record 
states that his mission occurred in the seventh year of Arta- 
xerxes, 22 presumably the second of that name (404-357 b.c.), 
which would date the event in the year 397 b.c. His motive 
in taking up the task was his zeal to bring to the reviving 
community the revised and elaborate law on which he and 
others of his race in the east had been devotedly laboring. 

22 Ezra 7:7. 

— I44 — 




The Rise of Judaism 


In that circle of earnest students of the older laws and the 
new occasion was the promise of the coming Judaism. 

Like others of his group, survivors of the Hebrew line, 
Ezra, a scribe, the first of the order, and represented by the 
Chronicler as of priestly descent, “ had set his heart to seek 
the law of Jahveh and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes 
and judgments.” 23 That his circle in Babylon had given 
itself to the expansion of the older codes, the Book of the 
Covenant, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel’s ideal constitution and 
the Law of Holiness, seems clear from the result of the 
movement. From Ezra’s point of view all the work done 
thus far in the rehabilitation of Jerusalem was of little value 
unless it was to be followed up with a vigorous campaign 
of indoctrination in the new Priest Law that had taken form 
under his hand. 24 The genealogy of Ezra as recorded by 
the Chronicler runs back to Aaron in fifteen generations. 25 
This may be an attempt at a valid record, or it may be de¬ 
vised in accordance with others of the writer’s genealogical 
lists to serve the purpose of his theory. In any case the 
priestly interest of the entire transaction is evident. The 
situation in Judah was ominous, less because of any material 
or economic difficulties than by reason of its sinister con¬ 
tamination by foreign elements, its almost total loss of the 
old Hebrew inheritance and its ignorance and disregard of 
the Torah. In fact the situation was much worse than Ezra 
imagined, as he was to discover to his horror on his arrival. 

According to the Chronicler’s report, the first concern 
of the reformer was to secure as large a company of priestly 
and Levitical companions as possible to assist in the enter- 

23 Ezra 7:10. 24 Ezra 9:8. 25 Ezra 7:1-5. 


— 145 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


prise, and some fifteen hundred were induced to make the 
journey. 26 This generous number and the meticulous care 
with which their genealogies are traced subject the narrative 
to the same reserves of judgment which are needed in the 
other statements of the work. Are these authentic facts, or 
are they a part of the romance of the movement ? The same 
question arises regarding the firman issued by the king to 
Ezra and his company. 27 Its Hebrew point of view and 
phraseology are at once apparent. But its purpose is clear. 
Ezra was represented as commissioned to proceed to Jerusa¬ 
lem with any who were minded to go with him, particularly 
priests and Levites, to ascertain whether the people of the 
province were living in conformity to the law of God which 
he was taking with him, and to teach them the requirements 
of that law. This point is made clear by reiteration. Twice 
the expression occurs, “ the law of thy God which is in thy 
hand.” 28 His passport therefore committed him to the 
important duties of bringing Judah to the test of the new 
law, of more fully interpreting and enforcing it, and of de¬ 
livering the gifts which the king and those who were in 
sympathy with the mission had contributed. Thus pro¬ 
vided, Ezra and his friends, probably not a numerous com¬ 
pany, arrived in Jerusalem. 

That he had but a slight opinion of the population of 
the city, either as to numbers or quality, is clear. They were 
a mere remnant, a fragment broken from the fabric of 
Israel, a solitary nail left in a wall. In fact they were a dif¬ 
ferent people, the result of incessant intermingling of races. 
If some man of the old stock could have survived for gen- 

26 Ezra 8:1-20. 27 Ezra 7:11-26. 28 Ezra 7:14, 25. 

—146 — 




The Rise of Judaism 


erations, like the Wandering Jew of later legend, he could 
have recounted the story of inevitable and ruthless change, 
a story 

“ Told when the man was no more than a voice, 

In the white winter of his age, to those 
With whom he dwelt, new faces, other minds.” 

The only hope for Hebrew institutions was the rescue of 
the Torah from oblivion, the summoning of the twelve 
tribes, still ideally existent, from the far places of their dis¬ 
persion to join in the revival of Jerusalem, the enrichment 
of the neglected temple service until it should be a joy and 
not a burden, the substitution of a worshiping congrega¬ 
tion for the vanished nation, and the creation of a commu¬ 
nity strictly obedient to the divine law. A people thus con¬ 
secrated to the holy memories and statutes of ancient Israel 
as symbolized in the Temple and the Torah, the Building 
and the Book, might survive and fulfill the mission which 
classic Israel attempted and failed to achieve. 

Strict conformity to the law informed with many rules 
of conduct might be far less attractive than the older free 
and easy behavior of a people who had refused to listen 
to the great moral leaders of the past. Yet that way alone 
lay survival and a mission. And Ezra and his fellow re¬ 
formers were not mistaken. By their untiring efforts Juda¬ 
ism came to its birth. Their hopes for a return of the 
Hebrews from distant lands were never realized, but in 
the little community itself with all its limitations there was 
formed the center or kernel of a new Israel which came to 
think of itself as worthy to inherit the promises made to the 


— 147 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


Hebrew fathers. 29 Externally a mixture and internally dis¬ 
united, they took fresh root on the old soil and ultimately 
came to vigorous life. The very hardness of the discipline 
prescribed for the new community as the basis of its or¬ 
ganization gave it a protecting shell of exclusiveness and 
loyalty which carried it through the distresses of Maccabean 
and Roman days. 

The first experiences of Ezra and his friends in the prov¬ 
ince were little in accord with his expectations. He had 
brought with him the new Priest Code, in compliance with 
which the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem were to be se¬ 
cured. But he took for granted the observance of the ordi¬ 
nary rules of good conduct as taught by the lawgivers and 
prophets of the classic age. Among such requirements was 
the avoidance of intermarriage with other peoples. That 
was the very foundation of a separate and elect community. 
What then was his astonishment and alarm when he discov¬ 
ered that no such obligations were recognized in the prov¬ 
ince, but that intermarriage was freely practiced with all the 
neighboring peoples. Even “the priests and the Levites 
had not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, 
doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaan- 
ites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammon¬ 
ites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. For 
they had taken of their daughters for themselves and for 
their sons, so that the holy seed had mingled themselves 
with the peoples of the lands; indeed the hand of the princes 
and deputies had been chief in this trespass.” 30 This of 
course was a long bow to draw, for several of these national 

29 Deut. 28:1-14. 30 Ezra 9:1, 2. 

—148 — 




The Rise of Judaism 


groups had vanished from history centuries before. But the 
words were not too strong to describe what to Ezra seemed 
the unspeakable horror of the situation. “ When I heard 
this thing I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked 
off the hair of my head and sat down astonished.” 31 Things 
could hardly be worse. 

Nothing is more evident proof of the miscellaneous 
and intermingled character of the community than the 
shocked surprise with which the people beheld the amaze¬ 
ment and agony of the missionary from Babylon. Humbled 
and terrified by these demonstrations of grief on the part of 
the man who purported to represent the divine will for the 
province, the population through its leaders confessed its 
errors, and promised any amendment which might be pre¬ 
scribed. A commission was appointed to examine the situa¬ 
tion and decide on a course of procedure. As a result, the 
Chronicler states, a drastic rule was adopted that all the 
foreign-born wives and their children should be sent away, 
and after his manner, a long list is appended of those men 
both priests and laymen who swore to take this step, and 
who offered a guilt offering in token of their penitence. 32 
No record is given of the results of this sudden and peremp¬ 
tory measure. It was manifestly impossible to enforce it, 
and after the first gestures of compliance induced by the ex¬ 
citement of the hour, it lapsed into disuse. The moral sense 
of any community would have revolted at so violent and 
unjust a step. Is the failure of the effort the reason for even 
the Chronicler’s silence regarding the fate of the undertak- 

81 Ezra 9:3. 

82 Ezra, chapt. io. The parallel account in i Esdras 9:36 says they actu¬ 
ally sent the wives and children away. 


— I49 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


ing? No doubt it would have been an embarrassment to 
acknowledge its collapse. Or is the entire account of the 
dramatic episode and its results apocryphal ? Whatever may 
be the impression produced by the narrative, it is quite in 
harmony with the Chronicler’s theory of a continuing and 
uncontaminated Israel. 

The next step recorded is the calling of an assembly, 
a mass-meeting of the people of the city, at which time Ezra 
and his colleagues read the “ book of the law of Moses,” the 
document which he had brought from the east. 33 This was 
the Priest Code, which was now to become the constitution 
of the revived state. When this had been read in this public 
gathering it was accepted by the people and their leaders and 
sworn to as the law of the community. As the assembly 
gathered by Josiah adopted the Deuteronomic code as the 
basis of the reformed commonwealth and recognized it as 
canonical scripture, 34 so the Priestly Law and its Pentateu- 
chal setting became the foundation for the Jewish state 
begun by Ezra on this impressive occasion. Its acceptance 
by the entire Palestinian community which held to the wor¬ 
ship of Jahveh is shown by the fact that even the Samaritans 
took it over as authentic Mosaic writings to be held with the 
remainder of the Five Rolls out of all the Hebrew literature 
as holy scripture. 

There followed naturally the observance of the various 
features of the new code, many of which had their roots in 
the older legislation. The feast of Tabernacles was kept; 
the Sabbath, so long neglected, was now given fresh and 
emphatic attention; the seventh year was recognized as a 

33 Nehemiah, chapts. 8-10. 34 2 Kings 23:1-3, 


—150— 




The Rise of Judaism 


time for the remission of debts; the law of the tithe for the 
support of the temple service was enforced; the offerings 
for the sanctuary, first fruits, meal, burnt offerings, and wood 
for the sacrifices, and the new rule designating a poll-tax 
of a third of a shekel, were all set forth and given mandate 
authority. The feasts and festivals prescribed by the law 
were put on the calendar as obligations; and the stringent 
regulations regarding mixed marriages were made clear, 
particularly in the case of dangerous neighbors like the 
Ammonites and Moabites. 

In this manner Judaism began its career. It was the 
appeal from an old and decayed nationalism to a fresh and 
hopeful religion. Political expectations and alliances were 
abandoned. It was an assembly of God-fearing men and 
women. It was made up of people of diverse groups but 
with a common purpose. Its members had turned from 
their heathenism or their half-hearted and diluted monothe¬ 
ism with a fierce enthusiasm for the faith in Jahveh with 
which their leaders had fired them. To all intents it was 
a new religion to which they were called, and with the de¬ 
votion of proselytes in every age, they responded with eager¬ 
ness. The old Hebrew race had vanished, and considering 
the later phases of its history there was little to regret in its 
going. The new race of Jews had come into being, bearing 
indeed a name associated at first with the territory of Judah, 
but soon becoming a title of vastly greater significance, and 
destined to send forth its confessors and its teachings into 
all the world. That it could not claim racial unity with the 
people of the Hebrew line was no disadvantage. It was 
made up of the purposeful and resolute souls who coveted 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


not so much a political career as an ethical and religious ex¬ 
perience. Under the spell of the enthusiasm created by the 
drastic reforms of Ezra they found what they sought. 

It would seem that whatever may have been the periods 
of Nehemiah’s residence in the province, he co-operated with 
his scribal colleague in all the measures adopted. The hopes 
of the two men were kindred. They carried over something 
of the Hebrew inheritance to the new community . 35 Their 
dream was that of a holy people in a holy land, from which 
the stranger was excluded, and in which all intermixture of 
blood and ideas would be impossible. The temple, the law, 
circumcision and the Sabbath were the symbols of this new 
commonwealth; and faith in God, prayer, fasting and the 
strict observance of the rules of conduct were to be the essen¬ 
tials of the holy life. It is not strange that from that modest 
but impassioned beginning there evolved a people that has 
become the wonder of history in its fidelity to the ideals that 
called it into being and that have guided its career. 

It is evident that the impulses which started the new 

35 It is of interest to recall the high esteem in which Ezra was held by 
the Jews of later years. Some scholars indeed have doubted the entire Ezra 
tradition, and regarded it as the creation of the Chronicler. The genealogy given 
him in Ezra 7:1-5 is not long enough to reach back to Aaron. He is not 
included in the list of worthies named by the Son of Sirach (Ecclus. chapts. 44- 
50; especially is his absence noticeable in 49:11-13 where Zerubbabel, Joshua 
and Nehemiah are all named) nor by the author of 1 Maccabees (2:49-66) 
or the writer of Hebrews (chapt. 11). No later reference is made to the numerous 
body of companions mentioned as brought by Ezra from the east. He is repre¬ 
sented as possessing considerable official authority on his arrival, and a large 
treasure. Yet he made no adequate use of either, and saw his work come well- 
nigh to failure. And was there ground for the claim to priestly rank (Ezra 
7:1-5), even high priestly (1 Esdras 9:40, 49)? Yet around his name gathered 
an entire literature, of history, romance and apocalypse. According to tradition 
preserved in 2 (4) Esdras 14:19-48 (a work of about 100 a.d.) he dictated to 
his five companions the entire list of books of scripture, which had been burned, 
and the seventy secret books. 


— 152 — 






The Rise of Judaism 


movement of Judaism were from Babylonia. However few 
in numbers the leaders in the enterprise may have been, they 
represented the best survival of the old Hebrew life. How 
many there may have been of this loyal type of Israelites 
remaining in the east it is impossible to say. In later days 
the Jews in Babylonia and Persia were very numerous. 
They were the result of a combination of the survivals from 
the past, of pilgrims migrating from Judah to the more fa¬ 
vorable environment of the east, and of accretions from the 
population around them, attracted by the principles of 
Judaism. How far the resemblances between Jewish and 
Zoroastrian beliefs facilitated such adhesions it is of course 
impossible to conjecture. Certainly the Persian religion pro¬ 
fessed by Cyrus and his successors and widely held by the 
people of that land was far nearer to the beliefs of the new 
Jewish group than any of the other systems prevailing in the 
world of that age. Many parallels have been noted between 
the later Judaism of the days of Jesus and the teachings of 
Mazdaism as enunciated by the prophet of Persia. 36 

The influence of Egyptian refugees from Palestine upon 
the new enterprise growing up in Judah was small if indeed 
any is to be discovered. The people of this series of migra¬ 
tions to the south were less interested than their Babylonian 
contemporaries in events taking place in the old Hebrew 
territory. As has been observed, the total number of He¬ 
brews who made their way into Egypt at different periods 
of the history was large. Some of them fled from troubles 
at home, and others were lured away by opportunities for 


36 Carter, G. W., Zoroastrianism and Judaism, chapt. 2. Moulton, J. H., 
Early Zoroastrianism, lecture 9. 


— 153 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


trade or for military service. The group at Elephantine with 
its temple to Yahu may not have been the only garrison 
community. The interest of the Egyptian dispersion in the 
older life of their people was small. They appear to have 
known or cared little about the law of the Jerusalem sanctu¬ 
ary, and drifted easily into half or wholly idolatrous forms 
of worship. Their lax attitude toward the ritual of Israel 
would have angered Ezekiel, as their easy practice of mixed 
marriages would have shocked Ezra. In the more remote 
parts of Egypt such groups probably faded out into the gen¬ 
eral population. In lower Egypt however, perhaps due to 
constantly arriving Jews from Palestine, the Jewish group 
came to be sizable and important, with institutional, literary 
and religious activities that demand later consideration. 
But in this period of nascent Judaism the Egyptian con¬ 
tingent played little part in the adventure as compared with 
the Babylonian contribution. In a very true sense Babylon 
was the birthplace of Judaism. 

The Jewish community in Jerusalem which resulted 
from the devoted labors of Nehemiah and the enthusiasm 
and zeal of Ezra had the usual type of organization which 
prevailed in most earlier Hebrew localities. There was of 
course the Persian governor, who was responsible for order 
and tribute in the province. The elders or “ senior states¬ 
men ” held a position of respect and perhaps of some au¬ 
thority, though much of the old power vested in the elders 
of cities and towns in the former times had passed away. 
The real leadership of the city so far as social and religious 
life was concerned was in the hands of the priests. This 
order had developed rapidly in influence during the closing 


154- 




The Rise of Judaism 


years of the monarchy, and in the beginnings of the Jewish 
state it was the chief factor left from the past. When Zerub- 
babel and Joshua came with pilgrims from the east in the 
days of Cyrus they represented respectively the monarchy 
and the priesthood, the state and the church. But the 
former lost out in the person of the prince, and the priest 
was left as the sole functionary. This plan, with the brief 
interlude of Nehemiah’s governorship, was taken up by the 
new Jewish community, and became in an increasing degree 
the pattern of organization. A gradual development of a 
hierarchy took place, with varying orders, unknown in the 
Hebrew times, and the power of the state was finally ab¬ 
sorbed in this order and its head, the high priest. In ancient 
Israel the king had on occasion performed the duties of 
priest, 37 as any study of the development of the priesthood 
will show. This was true of most oriental monarchies, and 
has been perpetuated in the history of many lands to the 
present time. The head of the state becomes by virtue of 
his office head of the church. 38 But in many instances the 
reverse has been true. The head of the church has assumed 
or secured the sovereignty of the state. This was the papal 
claim in more than one period of European history and has 
been renewed, even though in an extremely limited form, in 
the present day. 39 This was the change that took place in 
Judah. The priests became the actual rulers of the com¬ 
munity from the days of Ezra onward, and the title to po¬ 
litical power lay in the claim to a priestly lineage. The 
high priest was virtually king. Even the Maccabean rulers 

37 Cf. instances of this custom, cited on p. 168. 

38 England, Russia under the Czars, etc. 

39 Cf. the newly organized “ Papal State.” 


—155— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


grounded their right to sovereignty not alone on their ex¬ 
ploits but on the claim to a priestly genealogy. 

The physiological connection between the new com¬ 
munity and the old Hebrew life was small. As has been 
seen, the Hebrew element had grown less and less through 
the closing years of the Judean state, and had been replaced 
by constant accretions from the neighboring peoples who 
availed themselves of the downfall of Jerusalem and the 
ruin of Judah to secure a foothold on the soil. The commu¬ 
nity which Nehemiah found on his arrival was of the most 
complex sort, as even the Chronicler with his strong Jewish 
bias makes clear. The population was an amalgam of many 
racial groups among which the Hebrew had small place. 
The few who came from the east in the various pilgrimages 
after the decree of Cyrus and with the reformers in the days 
of the Artaxerxes cannot have been sufficient to overcome 
the strong preponderance of non-Hebrew blood in the prov¬ 
ince. The result was that a new and vigorous type had taken 
the place of the old. This was fortunate. The men who 
made up the citizenship of the rebuilt Jerusalem were of 
the sort who were ready for the difficult adventure of erect¬ 
ing a community structure after the pattern with which 
their leaders had inspired them. History shows that such a 
mixed community has the initiative, vigor and efficiency 
which are rarely found in an old civilization. Such is the 
boast of America today, 

“ Made of one blood with all on earth who dwell, 

Born brothers of the near and far as well; 

The children of one sacred fatherhood, 

And common heirs of universal good.” 

-156- 




The Rise of Judaism 


It was the moment for such a new race to appear. The 
old Egyptian, Asia Minor and Mesopotamian cultures had 
had their day, and all but ceased to be. Persia as a political 
power was waning, but as a factor in civilization was coming 
to its own. The rising forces of Greece and Rome were on 
the horizon. It was a time of opportunity for a new people 
and a new faith which should gather up the best of the past, 
and reinterpret it to the world. That was the open door 
which Providence set before the Jewish community in Jeru¬ 
salem, the birthplace of the older monotheism, the cradle 
of a greater monotheism to come. Would Judaism be able 
to perform the service which mankind needed? Was there 
sufficient force and moral idealism in the new race now tak¬ 
ing form to carry on this adventure ? History is the answer. 

In this movement the imperishable but threatened ideals 
of Hebrew prophets disengaged themselves from the crum¬ 
bling chaos of the Hebrew state and were preserved for 
wider appropriation. Judaism rescued that heritage, and 
developed the religion of the Old Testament in its own char¬ 
acteristic manner through midrash and Talmud into the 
Judaism of later days. But that was not the only develop¬ 
ment. A divergent tendency already implicit in the new 
enterprise followed a different curve, and issued in Chris¬ 
tianity. These two interpretations of the Hebrew spiritual 
culture produced the two monotheistic religions that have 
had most to do in shaping the ethical and spiritual ideals of 
the Occident. They are two of the daughter faiths that have 
emerged from the ancient life of Israel. The third is Islam, 
embracing fragments of both, but furthest in spirit from the 
source from which it arose. 


— 157 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


No proper description can be given of the racial and 
somatic elements that appeared in the Jewish race. Efforts 
have often been made to define the physiological character¬ 
istics of this people, both in the early period and at the 
present time. It cannot be done. There is a list of physical 
traits, such as prominent or broad nose, red or black hair, 
facial contour, height of skull, brow formation, and the like. 
Such features are doubtless all of them found in Jews in 
various parts of the world, but not in any persistent strain, 
and rarely combined. Moreover they are found equally 
among other races. It is often said that one can recognize 
a Jew at sight. If this be the case, which is doubtful, it is 
less because of appearance than by reason of speech or man¬ 
ner. “ Race is in the last issue in large degree a matter of 
psychology, not in the sense that a particular group of psy¬ 
chical traits is inherited, but that ‘races persist because the 
majority of men believe in them heartily, passionately, 
desperately.’ Race is ‘ a unity which finds its origin in 
intellectual phenomena such as language, religion, cus¬ 
tom, law and culture.’” 40 It is the belief of ethnologists 
that races like the Jews which have been forced to live 
among other peoples have inevitably taken on many of 
the physical characteristics of those among whom they 
live. 41 

Certainly there is no one type among Jews. 42 Resem¬ 
blances can be found among them to many other racial 
groups. A favorite diversion has been the comparison of 

40 McCown, The Genesis of the Social Gospel, p. ioo, quoting Todd, 
Theories of Social Progress, pp. 280, 283. 

41 Ripley, Races of Europe. 

Godbey, op. cit., pp. 144, 145, 150, 151. 

— 158 — 


42 





The Rise of Judaism 


faces found on the monuments, Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian, 
Babylonian, with Jewish faces of today, in the effort to trace 
resemblances. But this can be done in almost any part of 
the near east, where the mixture of stocks is beyond descrip¬ 
tion. The common Jewish face of caricature is Hittite. The 
tradition of racial integrity and purity of blood among Jews 
is as much of a myth as in the case of the earlier Hebrews. 
Outside of small groups which have been able to live in 
seclusion for some generations such preservation of race 
unity has been impossible. Dispersion, absorption, persecu¬ 
tion, outrage, violation, expatriation and intermarriage have 
had their way with this unfortunate people. Religious 
prejudice and racial traits have combined to make them 
unwelcome and unhappy wherever they have gone. Natu¬ 
rally they drew together for protection and reacted with 
hatred and fear against their oppressors, too often people 
professing the Christian religion. The stories of the pale and 
the ghetto are pathetic and accusing to all who read them 
and feel in any manner a creedal or racial involvement in 
them. In such circumstances it would be incredible that 
these people could maintain an unmixed and untainted 
racial stock. 

Nor have all Jews desired to keep to themselves. De¬ 
liberate departures from Judaism must have taken many 
ten thousands of them out from the limits of Jewry into 
gentile circles. In this manner they sought refuge from 
violence, or opportunities for military service, trade, or so¬ 
cial emancipation. One of the most significant tokens of 
this fact is the deliberate and constant exchange of Jewish 
for non-Jewish names. This practice began as early as Ro- 


— 159— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


man days, 43 and has continued and increased through the 
centuries. Only a small percentage of the family names 
borne by Jews today have any genuine Jewish characteristics. 
They belong rather to the peoples among whom Jews have 
lived, Russians, Germans, Spaniards, Italians, French and 
English, and were often means of escape from political, com¬ 
mercial or social disadvantage. 44 The recruits from Judaism 
to certain forms of religious belief, Christian and otherwise, 
are an illustration of the process. Had it not been for these 
constant depletions of the Jewish ranks from many causes, 
their numbers would today surpass those of almost any of 
the races of Europe. 

The composite nature of the Jewish commonwealth in 
Jerusalem at the beginning was continued and increased 
through succeeding years. As the new Jewish state grew in 
importance it attracted the attention and secured the al¬ 
legiance of the people around it. That process of infiltration 
from all the neighboring lands and from the desert never 
ceased. The prophets in earlier days had counted con¬ 
fidently on such an income of population, and though the 
first hopes of the new community were fixed on people of 
like faith in the east, they welcomed any helpful immigra- 

43 Transactions American Philological Association, 1928, p. 215. 

44 There are examples of actual Hebrew words used as family names by 
Jews today such as Cohen (priest), which is often disguised in such forms 
as Cohan, Cohn, Cone, Cowen, Cahan, etc., or biblical names, adopted as 
family appellations, and often similarly modified, e.g. Levi, which has many 
variants, such as Levy, Levin, Lewi, Lewin, Lewis, etc. But most of the 
common Jewish names, such as Rothschild, Goldberg, Goldstein, Erbstein, Frei¬ 
burg, etc., are of German and Russian origin, and represent deliberate efforts 
to escape the difficulties involved in bearing distinctively Jewish surnames. Note 
also the custom adopted by Jews to obliterate the marks of circumcision in the 
Maccabean times (1 Macc. 1:5; 1 Cor. 7:18). 

— l6o — 



The Rise of Judaism 


tion. They felt that men of every blood might be proud to 
call themselves members of the community. 45 Certainly 
there were many who felt and responded to that impulse. 
The desire was both territorial and religious. Newcomers 
came in from many motives. The Edomites, pushed out of 
their lands by the Nabateans, the makers of Petra, had come 
in numbers into southern Judah and made Hebron their 
chief city. Other people, the historic neighbors of Judah, 
swelled the population of Jerusalem and the province. But 
they came also to enjoy the religious values of the new com¬ 
munity. The services of the temple, the moral idealism of 
the scriptures, now increasing in volume, and even the 
strictness of Jewish ritual and discipline were attractive in 
contrast with the superstitions and idolatries of paganism. 

There were dividing lines between conservatives and lib¬ 
erals, as there have been in every period. There were those 
who accepted literally the exclusive ideas of Nehemiah and 
Ezra, and were disturbed by the growing group of those who 
without warrant believed they had claim to Hebrew ancestry. 
They would view with alarm the growing inclination to 
allow all classes and races to share in the privileges of their 
cultus. On the other hand the majority was in no position 
to approve such group distinctions, and accepted the situa¬ 
tion with satisfaction. Both these sections of the commu¬ 
nity persisted, and apparently the former grew in numbers 
and influence. In the days under consideration there must 
have been a large measure of devotion to the new law and its 
obligations. The adherents of a new faith are usually en- 

45 Cf. Ex. 12:48 f.; Lev. 19:33, 4; Num. 9:14; Deut. 14:29, 16:11; 
Isa. 56:3, 6; Zech. 8:20-23. 


— l6l 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


thusiastic and devoted. Proselytes from any source naturally 
would share the conviction and zeal of the leaders. Such has 
generally been the case with proselytes. The newcomers 
were likely to be the strongest and most patriotic adherents 
of the new regime. 

The character of the growing Jewish community differed 
in a number of characteristics from the old life of the He¬ 
brews. In spite of the frequent misfortunes to which the 
latter were subjected through their history the ancient He¬ 
brews were on the whole a free and joyous people, living 
much in the open spaces, delighting in the beauty of their 
land and taking life with the care-free confidence of the un¬ 
concerned. Their vocations promoted this sentiment. As 
farmers, herdsmen, artisans, tradesmen, dwellers in city or 
village, they took the evil of life with the good, the bad sea¬ 
sons with the favorable, and were not scrupulous or appre¬ 
hensive. The popular religion was conducive to this habit 
of mind. In spite of all prophetic warnings, Jahveh was re¬ 
garded generally as the partisan of his people, whose favor 
was to be counted on in any crisis, and who was not exact¬ 
ing in his requirements. The priests and prophets of the or¬ 
dinary type encouraged this attitude. The influence of the 
local sanctuaries tended strongly in the same direction. The 
pilgrimages and sacrificial feasts were times of merriment 
and good fellowship. Indeed it was this complaisant popular 
mood which caused the greater prophets their chief concern. 

Quite different was the disposition of the new community 
of Judaism. Its people had undertaken a serious and dan¬ 
gerous adventure. They were the survivors of various politi¬ 
cal and economic disasters. They were a remnant spared 

—162 — 




The Rise of Judaism 


from many clan and regional mischances, and were con¬ 
vinced that their safety lay only in scrupulous obedience to 
the will of the God regarding whom their leaders and their 
law instructed them. They were under few illusions re¬ 
garding their political possibilities. Jerusalem’s future must 
depend upon conformity to the rules of a consecrated life. 
However widely their children may have departed from 
these ideals in later years, this was the mood in which the 
little community of the revived Jerusalem began its career. 
It was a commonwealth of people committed to the observ¬ 
ance of a law; The good will of their God was dependent 
upon compliance with that Torah. They belonged to a 
church rather than a state, and only in conformity with its 
ritual could they hope for prosperity. That ritual was com¬ 
posite. Some of it came from the old temple service, some 
of it from the ceremonials of Egypt and some from Baby¬ 
lonia. But its central motives were reverence for the divine 
Head of the group, and strict observance of the laws which 
were believed to embody his will. Gradually Judaism 
molded the lives of its people in every detail. It was a system 
of wholesome discipline which was both a satisfaction to the 
devout and a refuge in time of trouble. Under the leader¬ 
ship of priestly officials the Jew became solicitous regarding 
the requirements for ceremonial piety and the holy life. 

It is from this point of view that Judaism must be evalu¬ 
ated. The circumstances in which it developed gave its 
adherents an increasing interest in distinctions of definition 
and niceties of conduct which to non-Jews have often seemed 
unessential and trivial. And such was the comment of Jesus, 
himself a conforming Jew, upon the system elaborated by 

—163 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the scribes. But it is difficult to see how it could have sur¬ 
vived in the trying period through which it passed without 
those safeguards of rigid conformity which made it capable 
of resisting persecution and other disintegrating forces. 
Around the ever more scrupulous observance of the Sabbath, 
accepted by the Hebrews, but kept with laxity by them ; 46 
around the practice of circumcision, generally observed by the 
Semitic peoples, but gradually given a higher meaning and a 
larger value by the Jews as a class rite; around the ministries 
of the sanctuary, where the priestly order held the center of 
its influence and authority; and above all, around the passion 
for its monotheistic faith, its most precious inheritance from 
the Hebrew past, the Jewish community rallied and began 
that career which has persisted through the centuries, has 
sent out its message into all lands and gathered first and last 
a multitude out of all races to its fellowship. 

The new law proclaimed by Ezra at the great assembly of 
the Water Gate in Jerusalem became the nucleus of the oral 
and the written Torah which at last took form in the Talmud. 
The hope of the Third Isaiah for an immediate and numer¬ 
ous “ return ” of friendly spirits from other lands to assist in 
the enterprise 47 was unrealized, and increasing hardships, 
the result of hostile conditions around them, led to an ever¬ 
growing tolerance toward those who were not of their num¬ 
ber or who refused to accept their interpretation of religion. 
Yet the territory of the little community actually grew, espe¬ 
cially toward the north and west, and neighboring peoples 


46 Note the prophetic references to popular disregard of the Sabbath, 
Jer. 17:21-27; Ezek. 20:11-24; Isa. 56:2, 6; 58:13. 

47 Isa. 56:7, 8; 60:3-14. 


—164 — 




The Rise of Judaism 


were attracted to participation in the new enterprise. It was 
a small beginning, but great things were hoped for. As yet 
Judaism was the religion of a weak minority, even counting 
all the groups in other lands who might be considered as 
sympathetic with such an adventure. But the ambition of 
the men who held to this new and vigorous faith was that 
they and their successors were to become the majority in due 
season. 


— 165 — 




VI 

PRIESTHOOD AND GENEALOGIES 


Like other lands of the orient Palestine from primitive 
times had numerous sanctuaries and holy places. To most of 
these some tradition was attached connecting them with di¬ 
vine visitations or sacred incidents in the past. To such spots 
pilgrimages were made, and there individual or community 
worship of some sort was carried on. Generally such holy 
sites were on elevations, and came to be known as the “ high 
places.’’ It was natural that some one in each case should take 
care of the open-air sanctuary and act as minister or guardian 
of the place. In this manner something in the nature of a 
priesthood took form and came to be recognized by the com¬ 
munity. That seems to be the story of the origin of a priest¬ 
hood among most ancient peoples. Ultimately these servants 
of the holy places were able to obtain formal recognition, and 
there grew up an order of priests with traditions of descent 
from some priestly and perhaps divinely selected ancestor. 
In this manner sanctuaries and their servitors came into being 
in quite simple and natural ways, and performed an im¬ 
portant part in the life of towns and villages in a land like 
Palestine. 

Long before the Hebrews arrived this custom was com¬ 
mon in that country as among other Semitic peoples. When 
they made their way in, in various groups and at various 
times during the thirteenth and twelfth centuries b.c., they 

— 166— 


Priesthood and Genealogies 


naturally fell into the customs of the land. They adopted its 
language, its habits and to a considerable extent its religion. 
Its sacred places became their own, and its customs of pil¬ 
grimage, sacrifice, priesthood and community organization 
were adopted. Some of these were not new to them; but in 
the beauties of mountain, forest and stream they found pleas¬ 
ure, and the festivals and holy days observed by the people 
appealed to their love of nature and their religious emotions. 
Soon the sanctuaries and the priestly customs of the land were 
adopted, and as the Hebrews gradually absorbed the earlier 
population, they organized their cultus to a marked degree 
upon the earlier foundations. 

In early Hebrew days there was no special order of men 
constituting a priesthood. Every man was both ruler and 
priest in his own family. Instances of this simple and in¬ 
formal type of priestly ministry are given in the biblical 
sources. Gideon built an altar to Jahveh, and offered sac¬ 
rifices upon it , 1 and Manoah the father of Samson made an 
offering of similar sort . 2 Neither of these men belonged to 
any priestly class. Similar was the case of Jephthah of 
Gilead . 3 Micah, a farmer of Ephraim, having secured two 
images, set apart his son as priest. Later on he employed a 
wandering Levite to minister in his family sanctuary, appar¬ 
ently because the man was in need of help and was a grand¬ 
son of Moses . 4 As the father was priest in his family, so the 
sheikh of a village would be likely to exercise such functions 
in behalf of the community. On occasion an entire clan 
might gather in an emergency and make sacrifice, without 


1 Judg. 6:24-26. 

2 Judg. 13:19. 


— 167 — 


3 Judg. 11:31, 39. 

4 Judges, chapt. 17. 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the necessity of having any priestly administrator. Such 
seems to have been the case after the slaughter of the Ben- 
jaminites in the times of the judges . 5 But the Hebrews found 
the custom of sacrifice and recognition of something in the 
nature of a priesthood at the time of their entrance into 
Canaan, and they followed it. Melchizedek the Canaanite 
king of Salem was priest as well, and this seemed a natural 
and proper thing . 6 The prophet Samuel, though not be¬ 
longing to any priestly clan, acted as celebrant of the rites 
of sacrifice on more than one occasion . 7 

Following this custom the kings of Israel offered sac¬ 
rifices, not as individuals, but as the representatives of the 
people. Similar in later and even modern times has been 
the custom of rulers among certain peoples, as in the case of 
the annual sacrifice offered, prior to the revolution, by the 
emperor of China at the Temple of Heaven. Saul , 8 David , 9 
Solomon 10 and other kings of the Hebrew line offered sac¬ 
rifices, and although it has been assumed by some writers 
that they employed the services of priests in these rites, there 
is no indication in the biblical sources that such was the 
case. It is only the assumption that a priest was necessary 
in the celebration of sacrificial worship that justifies this 
view. It is probable however that priestly ministries were 
recognized at an early period in Israel as appropriate and im- 

5 Judg. 21:4. 

6 Gen. 14:18. 

7 1 Sam. 7:9, 17; 9:12, 13; 10:8, etc. The late Chronicler, sensitive to 
the Levitic status of the priesthood in his day, provided Samuel with a Levite 
genealogy (i Chron. 6:27, 28). This however is quite at variance with the 
record in 1 Sam. 1:1, which makes him a member of the tribe of Ephraim. 

8 1 Sam. 13:9. 

9 2 Sam. 6:13, 17; 24:25. 

10 1 Kings 3:3, 4, 15; 8:5, 62, 64. 

-168- 




Priesthood and Genealogies 


pressive. David is reported to have taken deep interest in 
the formal exercises of worship and to have made extensive 
preparations for the erection of a sanctuary in Jerusalem . 11 
Allowance must be made for the fact that the narratives of 
his reign preserved in the prophetic writings took form cen¬ 
turies after his time, and doubtless included features of con¬ 
temporary as well as of earlier cultus. This is more clearly 
evident in the elaborate emphasis placed by the Chronicler, 
writing in the third century b.c., upon the entire Levitical 
procedure of his day, as though it had been a feature of 
David’s time . 12 

There appears to have been no restriction of priestly min¬ 
istries to any one tribal or family group , 13 though it may well 
have been the fact that members of the tribe of Levi, as re¬ 
lated to the leader Moses, and as being too few in numbers 
to obtain a tribal possession, were favored in the employment 
of village priests. The priests of the royal sanctuaries during 
the monarchy were appointees of the ruler, and in David’s 
time included sons of the king . 14 Absalom, with no such 
appointment, conducted his own sacrifice in his attempt upon 
the throne , 15 as did Adonijah at a later time and for the same 
purpose . 16 There is no trace of a hereditary hierarchy until 
a much later time. The sons of Zadok, who had been ap¬ 
pointed to the office of priest, and the sons of Abiathar, his 

11 2 Sam. 6:1—18; 7:1-17; 1 Chron. 28:3, 11-18; 29:1-19. 

12 1 Chron. 13:1-8; chapts. 13, 15-27. 

13 Encyc. Brit. 14 vol. 18, p. 481. 

14 2 Sam. 8:15-18, especially v. 18, where the true reading is “priests”; 
but notice the Chronicler’s change of this reading to “chiefs” (1 Chron. 18:17) 
in deference to the Levitical tradition. 

15 2 Sam. 15:12. 

16 1 Kings 1:9, where the Hebrew reads, “ Adonijah sacrificed sheep,” etc. 

—169 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


colleague, were the king’s servants, like other officers of the 
court . 17 

One of the chief sanctuaries of early Hebrew history 
was at Shiloh, where Eli served as priest. He was one of the 
judges, and this fact seems to have led to his priestly minis¬ 
try, although only late tradition connected him with the 
Levitical clans, and that only in a remote and vague man¬ 
ner . 18 The Shiloh sanctuary was the chief seat of worship in 
the strong tribe of Ephraim, and its priesthood might well 
have succeeded to the control of the temple service at Jeru¬ 
salem, particularly as Abiathar, whom tradition connected 
with that line, became the close confidant of David, having 
escaped from the priestly colony at Nob when the slaughter 
of the priests occurred there . 19 But when he joined the con¬ 
spiracy of Adonijah he lost the opportunity his friendship 
with David had given him, and was banished to Anathoth 
by the successful Solomon . 20 The latter conferred the priest¬ 
hood on Zadok, who had stood by him in the contest for the 
throne, but who had no connection with the house of Eli; 
and this choice is justified by the Chronicler, who traces his 
line back through Eleazar to Aaron, with whom the entire 
priestly order in Israel was assumed to have begun . 21 It was 
of course the task of the late priestly historians to trace their 
genealogy to Aaron, or at least to provide their clan with as 
direct and convincing a line of descent as possible. The study 


17 2 Sam. 8:17; 1 Chron. 29:22. 

18 1 Sam. 1:9; 2:35, 36; 4:18. 

19 1 Sam. 22:20-23. 

20 2 Kings 2:26, 27 (cf. 1 Sam. 2:27-36). 

21 1 Chron. 29:22; 6:49-53. It was the thesis of the late Priest Code 
that Aaron was the historic head of the priesthood in Israel. 


—170 — 




Priesthood and Genealogies 


of these Hebrew genealogies, like those of the later Jews 
and of other nations, is of interest as revealing the natural 
effort to connect the present with a distinguished past. 

During the early period and down to the times of Josiah 
(639-609 b.c.) there were sanctuaries in various parts of the 
country, each cared for by its own local priesthood. Besides 
the one at Shiloh there are references to those at Bethel, 22 
Ramah, 23 Beersheba, 24 Carmel 25 and the various Mizpahs 26 
and Gilgals, 27 though the more elaborate temple at Jerusalem 
drew popular interest to that center as the royal chapel. The 
earliest form of Israel’s legislation, the Book of the Cove¬ 
nant, 28 seems to take it for granted that there might be wor¬ 
ship at any place which the worshiper would choose, and 
that no particular priestly order was necessary. In addition 
to the instances in which the kings sacrificed where and 
when they would there are such stories as those of sacrifices 
by prophets like Elijah and Elisha. 29 It would seem then that 
until the time of the Deuteronomic law there was no restric¬ 
tion of worship to a central sanctuary nor to a special priestly 
order. Gradually, however, members of the Levitical clans 
secured increasing recognition as proper persons for sacri¬ 
ficial duties. This may have been due to traditions of priestly 
groups as far back as the Egyptian period or, as already sug- 

22 Gen. 35:14; Judg. 20:18, 26; 21:2—4; 1 Sam. 10:3. 

23 1 Sam. 7:17; 9:12. 

24 Amos 5:5, where Bethel, Gilgal and Beersheba are named as sanctu¬ 
ary cities. 

25 1 Kings 18:20, 30 (note the reference to the ruined “ altar of Jahveh ”)• 

26 Judg. 7:3-12; 10:17-24, etc. 

27 1 Sam. 10:8; 11:14, and the references to Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah as 
sacred places in 1 Sam. 7:16. 

28 Exodus, chapts. 20-23 = “ E,” and Exodus, chapt. 34 = “J-” 

29 1 Kings 18:30-39; 19:31. 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


gested, to the fact that these tribesmen were related to the 
family of Moses, and were few in numbers and therefore 
possessed a certain claim upon the good will of their country¬ 
men. At all events the practice was an old one, and the 
Levite families did not fail to avail themselves of the privi¬ 
leges accorded them and to increase them as opportunity 
offered. 

With the discovery of the code of Deuteronomy in the 
temple in the reign of Josiah, 621 b.c., a code that had pre¬ 
sumably taken form in the dark days of persecution under 
Manasseh, an entire change in the status of the priesthood 
was established. The reformers who revised the older Book 
of the Covenant into this new form were sensitive to the 
dangers that the looser laws of the past had permitted. 
Henceforth the office of priest was restricted to men of the 
tribe of Levi, with the tradition that at Mt. Sinai Jahveh sepa¬ 
rated that clan for the sacred work, and that Eleazar the son 
of Aaron succeeded his father in the priestly office. 30 This 
statement was supposed to explain the fact that this tribe 
had no regional inheritance in Israel. No distinction was 
made among them so far as status was concerned. All were 
equally eligible for such functions. They are regularly 
named “ the priests, the Levites,” or “ the priests the sons of 
Levi.” 31 It was not until a later age that the separation 
occurred between the priests of the family of Aaron, or in¬ 
deed more narrowly of Zadok, and the ordinary Levites, who 
performed the common service of the sanctuary. Later still 
there was a third order, the Nethinim, whose duties were 
not specified, but seem to have been of a still humbler sort. 

80 Deut. 10:6, 8, 9. 31 Deut. 18:1; 21:5. 


—172— 




Priesthood and Genealogies 


In this manner something of a hierarchy began, which 
gradually became an ambitious and classified series of grades, 
from temple servant to high priest. 32 

The functions of the priests were various. Taken as they 
occur in the sources, they ministered at the sanctuaries by at¬ 
tending to the sacrifices when the people came bringing their 
offerings and partook of the sacrificial meals. 33 In the times 
before the centralization of worship at Jerusalem in accord¬ 
ance with the Deuteronomic code they were the village pas¬ 
tors. They gave instructions in the name of Jahveh. They 
divined for those who asked for counsel, either by the use 
of the ephod, a priestly garment or a divining image, or by 
what was known as “ Urim and Thummim,” probably a 
form of inquiry by means of a magic stone. 34 They acted as 
health officers when people or articles were brought for their 
inspection. 35 In a late hymn of the northern tribes their 
duties are described in the words: “They shall teach Jacob 
thy judgments, and Israel thy law; they shall put incense 
before thee, and whole burnt offerings upon thine altar.” 36 
This poem was attributed to Moses by the authors of Deu¬ 
teronomy. 37 

It seems evident that the development of a hierarchy, 
with a chief priest or high priest, had no relation to the early 
Hebrew plan of sanctuary organization, but was the natu¬ 
ral evolution of an order of functionaries rendering service 
at an important center of holy ministries like the temple at 

32 i Chron. 9:2, etc. 

33 1 Sam. 1:3-5. 

34 Gen. 25:22; 1 Sam. 14:3, 18, 19; Num. 27:21; Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65. 

35 Leviticus, chapt. 13; Luke 5:14. 

36 Deut. 33:10. 

37 Willett, The Bible Through the Centuries, p. 61. 


— 173— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Jerusalem. The earlier sources make no mention of such a 
superior officer as a high priest. It may well be that the im¬ 
portance of the capital conferred a growing prestige upon the 
oldest or the most efficient of the priests at the sanctuary, and 
thus led to a succession in that office. Similar, as the his¬ 
torian knows, was the development of the priesthood in the 
Christian churches both of the east and the west. The first 
mention of a superior priest in the Old Testament is in con¬ 
nection with the discovery of the law book in the temple . 38 
In that instance Hilkiah is called the “ high priest.” But this 
may be the result of custom in the later age of the writer of 
Kings, or even of revision in the age of the Priest Code . 39 
The first authentic reference to a “ high priest ” by a con¬ 
temporary writer is Zechariah’s statement regarding “ Joshua 
the high priest ” in the vision of the trial in which the satan 
was the accuser . 40 It was the custom apparently during the 
entire period previous to the destruction of Jerusalem and 
the great dispersion to speak of even the most important 
priest at the temple merely as “the priest,” and^this in in¬ 
stances where the full title of “ high priest ” would be ex¬ 
pected if it were borne . 41 

Subsequent to that event, as the churchly idea took in¬ 
creasing form and the older customs of the monarchy were 
forgotten, the title of “ high priest ” or “ great priest ” be- 

38 2 Kings 22:4, 18. 

89 In the same connection mention is made of “ Hilkiah the great 
priest,” “ the priests of the second order,” and “ the keepers of the threshold ” 
(2 Kings 23:4); and of “ Seraiah the head priest, and Zephaniah the second 
priest” (2 Kings 25:18). 

40 Zech. 3:1 ff. 

41 “Zadok the priest” (1 Chron. 16:39); “ Jehoidah the priest” (2 
Chron. 23:8); “Uriah the priest” (Isa. 8:2). 


—174— 





Priesthood and Genealogies 


came common, and by the time of the Chronicler the vari¬ 
ous orders of priests and Levites were sufficiently fixed to be 
recognized and customary . 42 Different grades among the 
Levites are mentioned , 43 and careful distinctions are made 
between the duties of the two groups, some of which are 
attributed by the Chronicler to David himself . 44 The de¬ 
velopment of the priestly theory went forward among some 
of the Hebrews in the dispersion as well as in Judah, and in¬ 
deed much more freely. Tradition asserted that Ezekiel, a 
man of priestly family among the Hebrews in Babylonia, 
performed the service of a prophet in Tel-abib. His ef¬ 
forts were devoted to the revival of the national spirit 
under the inspiration of a description of Jerusalem as he 
hoped it would be rebuilt . 45 Of this city the new temple 
was to be the most important structure, and around it 
was to be organized the sacred community with its various 
orders of priests and officers. The code of Ezekiel was 
never actually adopted into the life of the Jerusalem com¬ 
munity, but its influence upon later legislation may be 
traced. It was a distinct criticism of the Deuteronomic 
scheme, notably in the common status there given to the 

42 “ Amariah, the head priest” (hac-cohen ha-r’osh, 2 Chron. 19:11); 
“Jehoidah the head priest” (2 Chron. 24:6); “ Azariah the head priest, and all 
the priests,” (2 Chron. 26:20); “the ruler of the house of God,” (nagid beth 
Elohim, 2 Chron. 31:10, 13); “Aaron the head priest” (Ezra 7:6); “the great 
priest” ( hac-cohen hag-gadol, Neh. 13:28). 

43 “Prince of the Levites” (1 Chron. 15:22); “heads of fathers’ houses 
of the Levites” (1 Chron. 15:12); “Asaph the chief, and second to him Zecha- 
riah ” (1 Chron. 16:15). 

44 1 Chron. 15:2. The difference between the earlier and the later view 
may be seen in the comparison of 1 Kings 8:3, where the priests carried the 
ark, with 2 Chron. 5:4, the same event, only that it is the Levites who bear 
the ark. 

45 Ezek. 1:3; chapts. 40-48. Cf. however the view of Torrey, op. cit. 


— 175 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


priests and the Levites. In Ezekiel’s program the priest¬ 
hood was limited carefully to the descendants of Zadok, and 
a line was drawn between them and other Levites. 46 The 
king disappeared from the picture, and a prince who was a 
rather insignificant figure took his place in this priestly re¬ 
public. It was Ezekiel’s view that the Levites really repre¬ 
sented the former priests of the demolished high places, and, 
though admitted to Jerusalem and to religious duties, were 
degraded to a subordinate place. 47 This was contrary to the 
thought of the Deuteronomists, who insisted that the coun¬ 
try priests who came up to the capital were to have the same 
standing as their brethren. 48 

This evolution of the priestly function has a distinct 
bearing upon the relation of the Jewish community in Jeru¬ 
salem to the older Hebrew establishment. In the days of the 
kingship, north and south, the priesthood was a somewhat 
decorative though not a really important body. With Juda¬ 
ism it became the ruling class. The priests among the Jews 
of the developing province of Judah became an increasingly 
important feature of the community. Their various orders 
were multiplied and classified. 49 Their numbers greatly in¬ 
creased, until they must have been as numerous on the streets 
of the capital as are the yellow-robed Buddhist priests on the 
thoroughfares of Burmah and Ceylon. They were more 
powerful than any other class in the community, and the 
head of the order, the head priest or high priest, became the 
ruler of the city and of the Jews in other regions. Later on 
the high priesthood became subject to the various corrup- 

46 Ezek. 44:15. 48 Deut. 18:7. 

47 Ezek. 44:10-14. 49 1 Chron. 24:1; 28:21; cf. Luke 1:5, 8. 

— 176 — 




Priesthood and Genealogies 


tions and venalities inseparable from power unrestrained by 
moral integrity. It was at times conferred by foreign con¬ 
querors as a mark of favor, and at times was bought by as¬ 
pirants who had no other claim than ambition. Even the 
Asmoneans, the family which brought such renown to Judah 
in the second pre-Christian century, assumed the title and 
functions of the high priesthood with only the most shadowy 
claim to Levitic lineage. 

It was insisted by the priestly writers that all the men 
suitable for service in the sanctuary belonged to the tribe of 
Levi, and that the priests were of the clan of Aaron, and were 
later limited to the family of Zadok. In support of this tradi¬ 
tion the late Priest Code included a narrative of the miracu¬ 
lous choice of Levi among the tribes by the test of the twelve 
rods, one for each tribe, among which the rod of Aaron, the 
representative of Levi, budded in token of the divine choice. 50 
It is probable that in the case of the priests, especially in later 
days, there was greater effort made to trace genealogical suc¬ 
cession than in other clans. Yet as in other instances the 
priestly families must have been made up of many stocks. 
The Levites in early times shared with the Simeonites the 
reputation of rough-handedness and brutality, perhaps be¬ 
cause of their avaricious and presumptuous conduct, and on 
them was pronounced the malediction, “ I will divide them 
in Jacob and scatter them in Israel,” taken from an ancient 
oracle ascribed to the patriarch Jacob. 51 Like the remainder 
of the Hebrews they were recruited from many sources. The 
Law of Holiness, 52 a fragment of the Hebrew legislation 
which carried the ideas of Ezekiel still further, and was 

60 Num. 17:1-11. 51 Gen. 49:7. 62 Leviticus, chapts. 17-26. 

— 177 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


included in the later Priest Code of Ezra’s time, distinctly 
recognized the right of the people to acquire slaves from 
other nations, and this privilege applied equally to the 
priestly class as to others. 53 The result could only be an 
amalgamation of racial elements. The application of this 
principle to the priestly families is definitely set forth. 54 

It is thus apparent that in spite of the assumption that the 
race of the priests was derived from authentic and divinely 
chosen ancestors and that care was taken throughout the his¬ 
tory to preserve untainted their tribal integrity, the claim was 
in reality late and incapable of validation. It was only after 
the downfall of the Hebrew state and the rise of Judaism 
that the new ecclesiastical interests developed a priestly caste 
and led to the attempt to connect the growing hierarchy with 
the beginnings of Hebrew life. Accepting the view of 
Ezekiel that the Levites were in reality the descendants of the 
“priests of the common people” who were permitted to 
minister at the northern sanctuaries by Jeroboam, 55 there 
could have been no racial exclusiveness in the Levitical order 
after they were once received into accredited standing, as the 
Deuteronomists insisted. But the history of the priesthood 
in Israel is too obscure, and the indications of irregularity and 
intermixture in the succession too suggestive to permit any 
confidence in an untainted racial purity even in this im¬ 
portant group of officials. This consideration receives further 
emphasis through the study of the entire subject of genealo¬ 
gies as recorded in the Hebrew and later Jewish and Chris¬ 
tian sources. 

63 Lev. 25:44. 65 1 Kings 12:31, 32; Ezek. 44:10, 11. 

64 Lev. 22:11. 

—178 — 





Priesthood and Genealogies 


In studying the subject of the rise of the Jewish people, 
and their connection, intimate, remote or fictitious, with the 
Hebrew life of the classic age, the significance of genealogi¬ 
cal interest in the later documents of the Old Testament be¬ 
comes evident. This was the period in which Judaism took 
form. As the disastrous effects of the great dispersion be¬ 
came increasingly obvious, the desire to connect the new 
community with the old was natural, and among some of the 
members of the Jewish group, particularly those of the 
priestly party, it became a passion. Just as the fall of Jeru¬ 
salem in 586 b.c. and the collapse of the Hebrew state stimu¬ 
lated the desire to preserve the records of the past and led 
to the production of such literary materials as the Samuel- 
Kings narratives, so the gradual disappearance of Hebrew life 
from the province awakened the interest of the new and 
composite generation in securing some genealogical connec¬ 
tion with the Hebrews of Israel and Judah. The most direct 
method of gaining such contact with the past was by use of 
the names found in the older records and their employment 
in the preservation or construction of lines of descent reach¬ 
ing to their own day. It is evident that as early as the Chroni¬ 
cler’s age, in the fourth century b.c., this interest had become 
specific and professional. The Talmud is authority for the 
statement that there were men who spent all their time in 
making and studying genealogies which were based on the 
lists found in Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah. 56 The Chronicler 
refers to the “ Acts of Rehoboam, written after the manner 
of genealogies.” 67 The same source implies the interest 
taken in that day in “ fathers’ houses ” among the Jews. 58 

66 Kidd. 76.6. 67 2 Chron. 12:15. 58 Ezra 2:59, 62; Neh. 7:61. 

— 179 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


That there were family registers in some households, or that 
this was the tradition, is implied in the sources. 59 It would 
seem from these references that there came a time when, as 
among other and later races, men were anxious to prove 
their descent from well-known, royal or priestly ancestors. 

No people in the early period of its history is concerned 
about its ancestry. It is only when time has passed or trag¬ 
edy has overtaken it that genealogical considerations begin 
to secure attention. A young people is too much occupied 
with the adventure of making good to waste time in a search 
for its past. Only when that past has measurably faded 
from remembrance or is threatened by national calamity does 
this solicitude regarding origins arise. Among the Hebrews 
such an interest came to birth only after the destruction of 
Jerusalem. Naturally this led to much genealogical activity 
and a considerable degree of invention. The Arabs of the 
age of the crusades were much given to the same order of 
speculation. The officials of Saladin’s court traced his line 
through thirty-three generations to Adam. But he insisted 
that he knew nothing of his ancestors beyond his grand¬ 
father. Professor William Robertson Smith, one of the fore¬ 
most authorities on Semitic origins, speaking of Hebrew and 
Arabic genealogies, says, “ The system of the genealogists and 
the method by which traditional data are worked into the 
system are totally unworthy of credit.” 60 

The Hebrews of the late period and the Jews of later 
days were not exceptional in this regard. Most nations which 
have attained a place in history have exhibited the same in¬ 
terest, and have cherished ancestral traditions of the same 

69 Ezek. 13:9; Ezra 8:20. 60 Kinship and Marriage, p. 175. 

—180 — 





Priesthood and Genealogies 


more or less questionable character. All people who have 
any sensitiveness to historical values desire an ancestry of 
distinction, and if a lineage of that order is not available, it 
is not impossible to contrive one with the aid of historical 
records or accommodating genealogists. It was Virgil's 
eagerness to glorify Roman imperialism by connecting it 
with the story of Troy and its heroes which gave impulse to 
his writing of the Aenead. Dante was of the same mind, 
though he did not employ the device of genealogical lists to 
fortify his thesis. Italians like other races have been fond 
of tracing their ancestry to eminent names in Roman an¬ 
nals. Scaevola, the patriot who committed a fault in the 
early days of Rome and so bitterly repented that he burned 
off his offending hand in the Forum, left a name so illus¬ 
trious that two thousand years later Sforza of Milan, the 
greatest leader of the middle ages, coveting a long ancestry, 
decided that he was a descendant of Scaevola, and pressed 
the names into a fancied similarity. 61 Such resemblances in 
names have been the fruitful sources of genealogies, as when 
the Massimo family of Rome claimed descent from Fabius 
Maximus. The oldest families in Europe are to be found 
in Rome, where history has had a more continuous course 
than in any other occidental area, and yet no family in Rome 
can trace its history beyond the middle ages. The Gaetani, 
the oldest of all, go back to the tenth century a.d. The 
Colonnas and the Orsini, the next oldest houses, date from 
i ioo and 1190 respectively. The claims of some Italian 
families to antiquity are diverting, arrogating through fabu¬ 
lous generations their descent from the ancient Romans, 

61 Crawford, op. cit., p. 12. 

—181— 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


when in reality they inherit the blood of barbarians of the 
north, those hardy invaders who had only disdain for a con¬ 
quered soil and a degenerate people. 

The oldest reigning families in Europe do not go back 
beyond the middle ages. The Hohanstaufens and Haps- 
burgs date from the eleventh century, and the Hohenzol- 
lerns from the seventeenth. The British royal family traces 
its chain of descent through several questionable links to 
William the Conqueror, but confesses that his own origin 
was marked with the bar sinister; and that only by the most 
tenuous thread, through the family of his wife, Matilda of 
Flanders, was there any connection with Alfred the Great. 62 
Alquin, the famous scholar of the court of Charlemagne said 
that in his day there was no man left of the ancient stock of 
English kings. If the testimony of genealogists like Dug- 
dale and Barron is to be accepted, many of the claims made 
for nobility and even royalty are as mythical as the stories 
of Arthur and the Round Table. 63 The line of English kings 
from the Conqueror’s time runs over some very uneven 
ground through Plantagenet, Tudor, Stuart, and Guelph 
stock to the Wettins (changed to Windsors) of the present 
day. The passion for ancestry that came to its flowering in 
the reign of Elizabeth produced a noxious crop of genealogi¬ 
cal fables nourished by the pedigree mongers who were ready 
on demand to produce mythical forefathers for the ambi¬ 
tious. Many of these were quite content with a traditional 
ancestor who was reputed to have been “ a companion of the 
Conqueror.” Until recent generations family names have 

62 William of Malmesbury, De Gesta re gum (Stubbs ed. p. 267). 

63 Encyc. Brit. 14 Genealogies, Vol. 10, p. 102. 

—182 — 





Priesthood and Genealogies 


been the exception. Most men contented themselves with 
a baptismal name, like John or William, or at most a “ son ” 
name, like Johnson or Williamson, running through the 
Irish, Scotch, Welsh, French or Dutch variants of O’, Mac, 
Ap, De, Von or Van, if indeed the name was not derived 
from the locality in which a man lived, like John of Bedford, 
or William of Norfolk. 

In most cases it is only continuity of land tenure that in¬ 
sures genealogical integrity. People are easily misled by 
similarity of names, and are betrayed into fictitious claims 
for their families. It is not difficult in American families 
of landed stability or historical interest to trace ancestry back 
to Revolutionary or even colonial days. When the search is 
carried to European soil the difficulty is increased with every 
generation, and competent genealogists are of the opinion 
that few landed or noble families can trace their ancestry 
back to the middle ages, and none beyond. The line of 
Rurik that claimed Russian sovereignty from 862 to 1598 a.d. 
produced a swarm of claimants to royal blood. But Michael 
Romanoff, who headed the list of the later Czars in 1613 had 
no connection with the Rurik line. In fact no European 
family makes serious claim to bridge the dark ages with its 
genealogy. Certain Brahmin families in India may claim 
some valid and continuous connection with Vedic times 
through the operation of the caste system. Probably the 
nearest approach to authentic family antiquity is to be found 
among the Chinese, where many villages are virtually family 
units which have occupied the same sites for many cen¬ 
turies. Instances are found all through history of extrava¬ 
gant claims to ancient lineage, as in the case of Sargon the 

-183- 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


younger, who boasted of the 350 kings who had reigned be¬ 
fore him, or the Japanese insistence on the 225 ancestors in 
the royal line of the Mikado. 

If this legendary character attaches to most if not all of 
the genealogical lists of European families, where continu¬ 
ity of land tenure and of titular descent would be likely to 
prevail if anywhere, much more truly would it characterize 
the records of a people like the Jews, whose origins were of 
the most mingled pattern, and whose career has been marked 
by the most tragic territorial and political misadventures. 
Any connection with the ancient Hebrew stock, save the 
most tenuous, must be abandoned. The numerous invading 
groups, chiefly Edomite, which poured into Judah to avail 
themselves of the opportunities which the reviving colony of¬ 
fered, brought with them no ancestral validations. The new 
and complex community started therefore as free from tradi¬ 
tion as did the Hebrew clans who entered Palestine in the 
days of the Ramses. 

For this very reason, as soon as the first activities of the 
growing city permitted, and the priestly nature of its organ¬ 
ization was determined, the desire for some definite connec¬ 
tion with the past arose. This is no accident in the history 
of new communities. The absence of authentic records of 
the past is likely to stimulate the desire to preserve or create 
some degree of continuity with the earlier story of the local¬ 
ity and the people who formed its previous population. In 
no manner is this object so easily attained as by means of 
genealogical lists actually possessed or contrived without seri¬ 
ous difficulty on the basis of current tradition. Moreover 
those in the rising town who were sensitive to this interest 

—184— 



Priesthood and Genealogies 


had ample suggestion supplied by such lists of names in the 
Hebrew writings which were now their classic literature. 
So notable a body of documents produced chiefly on the soil 
now occupied by them, could not fail to be normative in 
nearly all phases of their life. In those records they found 
lists of names purporting to be genealogies. There were 
two variant but related groups of long-lived patriarchs, 64 a 
table of the sons of Noah, 65 a list of the descendants of Shem 
down to Abraham, 66 the long list of descendants of Esau, 67 
the table of Jacob’s children who went into Egypt during the 
premiership of Joseph, 68 the genealogy of Moses and Aaron, 69 
and other series of names of less importance. 70 The longer 
and more important of these were from late priestly 
sources, and disclose the marked interest of the writers in 
genealogical and Levitical matters. 

With this basis of concern for lineage in their accepted 
scriptures, and with the arousal of interest due to their need 
of association with the past, there soon developed among the 
people of Jerusalem a group, probably of priestly connec¬ 
tions, in whose minds the matter of genealogies became a 
subject of deep concern, investigation and elaboration. In 
the case of the priests this was an affair of consequence. As 

64 Genesis, chapts. 4, 5. Probably a convenient device for filling in 
the interval from the assumed date of the creation to the days of Noah and 
the deluge. 

65 Genesis, chapt. 10. It proves to be a geographical list of the neigh¬ 
boring peoples of whom the Hebrew author knew, and their localities. 

66 Gen. 11:10-26. 

67 Genesis, chapt. 36. An obvious effort to relate the Edomites who had 
pushed into Judah and were the major element in the population of the colony, 
to Abraham and the classic Hebrew tradition. 

68 Gen. 46:8-27. 

69 Ex. 6:14-25. 

70 E.g. Gen. 22:20-24; 25:1-4, 12-18; 35 ^ 3 - 27 » etc. 

— 185 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


among most nations the priesthood was presumed to be a 
hereditary office. In the later years of Judaism this was a 
matter of the utmost importance, as the narratives of the 
Chronicler and passages in the New Testament show. 71 In 
fact the records of the Chronicler, including Chronicles, 
Ezra and Nehemiah, written in the fourth century, genera¬ 
tions after the days of Ezra and the beginnings of Judaism, 
are a veritable “ scroll of genealogies,” whose purpose is ap¬ 
parent throughout the narratives. That purpose is the vali¬ 
dation of the Jewish claim already asserted in that writer’s 
day, that his people were of continuous and untainted de¬ 
scent from the ancient Hebrew race, that their priests were 
of undoubted Aaronic stock, and that there were records 
attesting these claims. In fact he went so far as to affirm that 
“all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and behold they 
are written in the book of the Kings of Israel.” 72 

This was the traditional view held by Jews in the years 
since Josephus, in the first Christian century, in his work 
“ Against Apion,” makes it his purpose to assert the purity 
of Jewish blood, and the carefully authenticated genealogies 
of the priestly order. 73 The claim to priestly descent became 
increasingly a badge of honor, even though it might be in¬ 
direct and incapable of proof, as in the case of the Maccabees 
and of Josephus himself. Similarly it was really important 
that every Jew have some traditional connection with one of 
the ancient tribes of Israel. Though these tribes had long 

71 i Chronicles, chapts. 24, 25; Luke 1:5, 9. This in spite of the fact that 
in the later Maccabean and Herodian days the priesthood, even the high priesthood, 
was bestowed as a political favor at the caprice of rulers. 

72 1 Chron. 9:1. 

73 Josephus, Contra Ap. 1. 7. 

—186— 






Priesthood and Genealogies 


since disappeared, and there was no way in which such a 
connection could be traced, they were still regarded as ideally 
existent, and the claim to tribal lineage was held to be en¬ 
tirely valid. Examples of this ancestral attachment are to 
be found in the New Testament in the cases of Elizabeth , 74 
Anna , 75 and the apostle Paul . 76 The genealogies of Jesus 
are striking illustrations of the effort to connect him with 
historic and important names in Hebrew history . 77 The 
same Jewish sentiment regarding the continued existence of 
the twelve tribes is observed in several passages in the Chris¬ 
tian sources , 78 where it is the purpose of the writers to as¬ 
sume the ideal survival of the Hebrew tribes, and to assert 
the identity of the living Jewish generation with that sur¬ 
vival. The influence of Ezra and the passion of the Chroni¬ 
cler may be observed in these genealogical interests. This 

74 “ Of the daughters of Aaron,” i.e., the wife of a priest, Luke i :5. 

75 “ Of the tribe of Asher,” a north-Israel tribe that vanished after 721 b.c. 

76 “Of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin,” Rom. 11:1; “of 
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews,” Phil. 3:5. 

77 Matthew, chapt. 1; Luke, chapt. 3. It will be noted that these gene¬ 
alogies vary widely in content, that one appears to run through the royal line of 
Israel back to Abraham, the other through a different line to Adam, and that 
neither gives the genealogy of Mary, but both belong to Joseph. They are 
clearly from different sources, perhaps one Palestinian and the other Hellenistic, 
and neither belongs to the central body of the Gospels. Similar variations in 
Old Testament lists are found in several passages; e.g. in the comparison of 
Gen. 4:16-22 with Gen. 5:1-32; of 1 Chron. 6:17-21 with 1 Chron. 6:39-43, 
and with 1 Chron. 6:44-47. 

78 Acts 26:7, Paul before Agrippa, “Our twelve tribes serve God”; 
Jas. 1:1, “to the twelve tribes which are scattered over the world”; Rev. 7:4, 
“ from every tribe of the children of Israel.” The disappearance of the tribes 
from the history however is indicated by the silence of 2 Kings, and particularly 
the absence of reference to tribal relations in Ezra and Nehemiah, save in two 
or three very late passages, such as Neh. 11:3-24 and 11:25-36, where Judah 
and Benjamin may be merely names of districts. In later days a family would 
be likely to determine its tribal relation from its locality in Palestine, as in Tob. 
1:1; Judith 8:1; 2 Macc. 3:4 (Cf. W. H. Bennett, art. " Tribes” in Jewish Encyc. 
and Cook, art. " Tribes” in Encyc. Brit.). 







The Jew Through the Centuries 


is still further evident in the documents of the Talmud, 
where much space is devoted to the subject. The spurious 
character of many of the genealogical lists is freely ad¬ 
mitted . 79 It was the theory among the Jews, particularly of 
the genealogizing and Levitizing groups, that every member 
of the race could trace his line back to Jacob. This, of course, 
requires no comment . 80 The experiences of the Jews, both in 
origin and later history, particularly after the fall of Jeru¬ 
salem in the Roman war, were in the last degree unfavorable 
to such a view. Yet the further removed and the more in¬ 
definite they became, the more confident were the assertions 
regarding their descent. This is a characteristic by no means 
limited to Jewish families! 

The doubtful sentiment that prevailed among thought¬ 
ful Jews regarding these genealogical speculations is illus¬ 
trated in the comments of the apostle Paul on the entire sub¬ 
ject. Although affirming his deep interest in his Jewish 
heritage and his warm affection for his racial brethren, he 
warns his friend Timothy not to give heed to “ fictions and 
interminable pedigrees,” and cautions Titus to shun foolish 
questionings and genealogies, as unprofitable and vain . 81 

79 See the interesting article on Genealogies by Dr. E. G. Hirsch in 
the Jewish Encyclopedia, in which the zeal for family and priestly records is 
shown to be late. 

80 G. B. Gray, Hebrew Proper Names, p. 68. He points out the fact that 
only continuity of location and land tenure can validate genealogical assurance, 
and in commenting on the Chronicler’s method he thinks the fact that in 
i Chron. 4:34-41 the names are those of the Chronicler’s own time, and are 
at least not genuine survivals, makes it probable that the list is largely an 
invention. See also the articles on Genealogies in Encyc. Bib. and H. B. D. 

81 1 Tim. 1:4 (Goodspeed); Tit. 3:9. 


— 188 — 





VII 

THE GROWTH OF JUDAISM 

The first period of Jewish history, from its beginnings 
under Nehemiah and Ezra in the closing years of the fifth 
century b.c. to the Maccabean revolution in the first half of 
the second, was marked by such variations of fortune as a 
new state might expect to encounter. There was both gain 
and loss in population. New immigrants were attracted 
from the neighboring regions by the promise which the 
growing town held out. Individuals of Hebrew stock or 
sympathies came from Egypt and the east, lured by the 
hope of a restored Zion and the expansion of a priestly law. 
There was a measurable and constant infiltration from the 
steppe, as there had been after every crisis in Hebrew life, 
and as there was in later Maccabean days. Especially sig¬ 
nificant was the Edomite element from southern Judah, 
where Hebron became the capital of this tribe as it was 
pushed out from the region of Petra by the incoming 
Nabateans. 

On the other hand there were losses from the departure 
of disappointed and disillusioned members of the commu¬ 
nity, who failed to realize their first expectations, either 
religious or economic, and tried their fortunes elsewhere. 
The drastic reforms of Nehemiah and Ezra, particularly 
regarding intermarriage with non-Hebrews, soon fell into 
abeyance. Indeed it was impossible that they could succeed, 
both because of their severe tone and the hopelessly mixed 
character of the population. Like the reforms of Josiah and 

—189 — 


The Jew Through the Centuries 


Akhenaten they soon suffered disuse, though later genera¬ 
tions seem to have regarded them as having been actually 
realized in the rising Jewish state. The first enthusiasm of 
the community, inspired by the energy of its leaders, de¬ 
clined. For a time the temple services which had fallen to 
low levels in the dark days before the final collapse of Judah 
were given a new and important place in the life of Jeru¬ 
salem under the influence of the priestly law of Ezra. This 
was inevitable in the change of its character from a royal to 
a priestly town. The ministers of religion were observant 
of the rites of temple service, but the spirit of prophecy was 
lacking, the ideals of Deuteronomy were forgotten, and 
paganism crept in with the strange intrusions from neigh¬ 
boring lands. 

The last years of the Persian era have left few records 
bearing upon the province of Judah. Such biblical mate¬ 
rial as has survived from this period is scattered and diffi¬ 
cult of assignment. Certain passages in Joel, in the Third 
Isaiah and in the late psalms give hints of tragedies that 
befell the city and brought further dispersion to its popula¬ 
tion. A punitive expedition by Artaxerxes III. Ochus (358- 
337 b.c.) to crush the widespread revolt of his western prov¬ 
inces probably involved Judah, and seems to have left echoes 
of destruction, persecution and dispersion. This bloody 
ruler ordered many of the Jews removed by his lieutenant 
Orophernes (the Holofernes of the book of Judith) to Hyr- 
cania and Babylonia. Also there is record of persecution by 
Bagoas (Bagoses), another Persian officer. 1 It is not un- 

1 Cf. Josephus, Antiquities XI. 7. 1; cf. Psalms 44, 74, 79, 89; Isaiah, chapts. 
24-27; 63:7-64:12, etc. 







The Growth of Judaism 


likely that such instances of temple desecration and deporta¬ 
tion of citizens as occurred in 346 b.c. under Ochus took 
place at other times in the closing years of the Persian rule. 

In this era of variable fortune when the city was strug¬ 
gling through good and evil days it was natural that the 
minds of the more hopeful of its people should turn to the 
widely scattered groups in other lands who as refugees or 
expatriates had departed from Judah during its fresh mis¬ 
fortunes, or were the children of Hebrew exiles of former 
times. The actual numbers of such “ Jews,” whose former 
connection with the province or whose religious interests in 
the new adventure justified in some measure the use of that 
name, must have been considerable. 2 That there were such 
communities in Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt as well as in 
other portions of the Near East is clear from the references 
in the late prophetic books, and their numbers were con¬ 
stantly recruited by pilgrims and refugees from Jerusalem 
through the whole of the Persian and Greek periods. In 
the thought of at least some of the more optimistic members 
of the Judean community this outlying nimbus of sympa¬ 
thetic and related people was a great host, and might be ex¬ 
pected to play an important role in the local affairs of the 
lands they occupied, or to assist in the enlargement and en¬ 
richment of Jerusalem. This idealistic and extravagant view 
had no small effect in sustaining the morale of the strug¬ 
gling city. Such is the sentiment expressed in the romance 
of Esther, where the numbers and importance of the Jews 
in the Persian empire are out of all proportion to the his¬ 
torical facts. In the case of Egypt there was much to justify 

2 Olmstead, op. cit., p. 209. 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


the mood, for the Jewish population there reached very con¬ 
siderable proportions in the Greek age, and played no in¬ 
conspicuous part in the political and economic status of 
Alexandria and other centers. 

Most of all it was the confident expectation of the Jews 
of the province that help would come from this outlying 
circle of interested co-religionists. Such had been the con¬ 
fident expectation in the Hebrew times of disaster that cul¬ 
minated in the dispersions of 597, 586 and later days as voiced 
by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Second Isaiah and other proph¬ 
ets. 3 It was no less the hope of Judah in the later days of 
stress. In the Third Isaiah this anticipation is more than 
once expressed with confidence. 4 But these hopes were 
realized in only the most limited degree. There was little 
to encourage any notable increase in the city’s population 
in these uncertain days. As the author of Daniel later wrote, 
they were “ troublous times.” 5 

During the same period, the closing years of the Persian 
regime, a second religious community was taking form in 
the region north of Judah. This was the Samaritan group, 
the survivors of the northern tribes, who lost their national 
estate in the Assyrian reduction of Samaria in 721 b.c. This 
remnant of the kingdom of Israel established itself in the 
region of the ancient sanctuary of Shechem, which the 
Greeks later called Neapolis or New-Town, and which in 
modern times has been given the Arab form of the name, 
Nablous. Between this community and Jerusalem there 

3 Cf. Zephaniah’s expectation of returning pilgrims from beyond the 
rivers of Nubea, perhaps Hebrew garrisons in the upper Nile region (Zeph. 3:10). 

4 Isaiah, chapts. 60 and 61 passim. 

6 Dan. 9:25. 


—192 







The Growth of Judaism 


grew up a sentiment of jealousy and aversion, probably be¬ 
cause they were largely contemporary in origin, and each 
claimed to be the authentic heir to the Hebrew inheritance. 
In the days of the Chronicler this hostility had reached a 
degree of intensity which affirmed that the Samaritans had 
offered to assist in the rebuilding of the temple, but had 
been refused participation in the enterprise. 6 

To this episode there is no reference in the contempo¬ 
rary documents of Haggai and Zechariah. Indeed the pro¬ 
phetic attitude of that age was one of hospitality to all inter¬ 
ested peoples, as witness the messages of the Second Isaiah 
and Malachi. But the journal of Nehemiah 7 is evidence 
that in the later years of the fifth century b.c. the two com¬ 
munities were no longer tolerant of each other, and each 
was asserting its exclusive right to be the interpreter of the 
monotheism which the Hebrew prophets had preached. To 
increase the difficulty there had been intermarriages between 
leading families on both sides, and this led to various forms 
of sharp practice which left their effects through years of 
bitterness that are reflected in the later records of the Old 
Testament and in the New. The decisive breach was caused 
by the erection of a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim, perhaps 
during the closing years of Darius II (424-404) about the 
end of the fifth century b.c. or early in the fourth. 

The constitution of the Samaritan community was the 
“ Law of Moses ” as embodied in the first five books of the 
Hebrew scriptures, the complete Pentateuchal Code, and a 
shortened form of the book of Joshua. These are preserved 
to the present time in two ancient rolls in the Samaritan 

6 Cf. Ezra, chapt. 4. 7 See Neh. 2:20 and chapts. 4 and 6. 


— 193 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


synagogue in Nablous. It was the Samaritan claim that Mt. 
Gerizim where their temple was erected was the veritable 
mountain of Abraham’s sacrifice and the mountain of the 
giving of the law. They maintain to this day a priestly order 
asserting direct descent from Aaron, and hold an annual 
Passover sacrifice on the holy mountain. In their version 
of the Pentateuch the word “ Gerizim ” appears in passages 
like Deut. 27:4; it is their claim that the law of the single 
sanctuary in Deuteronomy refers to this mountain, and not 
to Jerusalem; 8 that the Jews are a later, mixed, and schis¬ 
matic race who took root in Judah and departed from the 
orthodox teachings of Moses; that they, the Samaritans, are 
of true, pure and continuous racial stock, sincere in their 
zeal for the law, and loyal to the traditions of their Hebrew 
past. Their numbers, which once extended to numerous 
places in Palestine and even beyond, have now dwindled to 
less than a hundred, and their literature, which at one time 
was extensive, is now reduced to a few works on their his¬ 
tory and the Torah. Yet this small and pathetic group, 
claiming to be the rightful heir of Israel, has kept its place 
in its ancient home in Palestine through all the centuries 
since its beginning, and is perhaps the oldest continuous 
religious community in the world. 9 

In spite of the difficulties through which Jerusalem 

8 Deut. 12:5 fT.; cf. John 4:20. 

9 Possible echoes of the Jewish attitude toward the Samaritans may be 
found in such passages as Isa. 57:3-12; 65:1-5; 66:1-4. Note the attitude of 
Jesus in contrast with the Jewish prejudices of his day against the Samaritans 
(Luke 10:33; J°hn 4:4-9; etc.). At one period they possessed synagogues in 
Egypt, and even in Rome. The temple on Mt. Gerizim was finally destroyed 
by the Romans in 484 a.d. The regular line of high priests became extinct in 
1623. The present chief priest is Khaim Ishak. On the entire subject consult 
Montgomery, The Samaritans . 


— I94 — 





The Growth of Judaism 


passed in these years, difficulties economic, moral and reli¬ 
gious, there was a marked determination on the part of a 
considerable group to maintain the ideals of the founders 
of the community, their monotheistic faith, their loyalty to 
Jahveh, the continuity and regularity of the temple services, 
and the observance and expansion of the priestly laws. The 
monarchy had passed away. The city was governed in ac¬ 
cordance with a priestly pattern. Trust in God and obedi¬ 
ence to the law were the accepted means of securing the 
divine favor and a measure of protection and material pros¬ 
perity. The factors favorable to this effort were the pres¬ 
ence and continued services of the temple, which in spite of 
neglect and desecration had survived as one of the few 
buildings remaining from the former Hebrew age. This 
was the center of priestly authority and influence, and af¬ 
forded a degree of resistance to the pagan ideas and customs 
which came in from neighboring communities. 

But the formal services of religion were not always effi¬ 
cient safeguards against prevailing evils. The late psalms 
and certain prophetic fragments hint at an inner circle of 
the pious who lamented alike the growing secularism of the 
age and the formalism and ineffectiveness of the priestly 
ministries. On the whole, however, it was felt that the ob¬ 
servance and expansion of the Torah was the surest guaran¬ 
tee of success. In spite of the elaborate character of the Priest 
Code promulgated by Ezra, which went far toward setting 
monotheism on a firm basis in the province, there were 
many particulars in which that law might be expanded to 
advantage. It was inevitable that such a program of elabo¬ 
ration should be undertaken by men who possessed some- 


— 195 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


thing of Ezra’s priestly and scribal enthusiasm. Rules relat¬ 
ing to such matters as the Sabbath, the ritual observances of 
daily life and the study of the scriptures, in which the 
Hebrew legislation was not thought sufficiently specific, 
began to take form in a manner that forecast the tal- 
mudic activities of later centuries. New feasts were added 
to the calendar, as in the case of Purim, whose origin is 
unknown, but whose inauguration appears to date from this 
period. 10 

The cessation of prophecy as well as of an actually au¬ 
thentic priesthood was deplored, 11 but compensations were 
discovered in more precise legal refinements, in the gradual 
development of apocalyptic, and the evolution of a new 
apologetic and evangelism. No doubt something of this 
zeal for the enlargement of the area of religious observance 
sprang from the sense of rivalry with the Samaritan sanctu¬ 
ary on the north. In the later years of the Persian period 
Samaria revived and became a city of consequence, the resi¬ 
dence of a Persian officer of the district, who may have had 
an adviser in Jerusalem. The neighboring temple on Mt. 
Gerizim, a recently erected shrine, might well be regarded 
as a dangerous competitor with the somewhat dilapidated 
sanctuary in Jerusalem, a more or less dismantled survivor 
of the days of Haggai and Zechariah. It was not until the 
Maccabees and Herod gave Jerusalem its political and artis¬ 
tic significance that the danger of Samaritan rivalry passed 
away. Since that time it is the Jews and not their less nu¬ 
merous and resourceful competitors who have held the 

10 The book of Esther offers a fanciful suggestion (Esth. 9:24-32). 

11 Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:63; 1 Macc. 4:46; 14:41. 

— 196 — 




The Growth of Judaism 


stage of history, and given their interpretation of the ancient 
controversy. 

The Persian age came to an abrupt ending with the bril¬ 
liant conquests of Alexander the Great in the near and far¬ 
ther east. The map of the world was changed by the cam¬ 
paigns of this military genius between the years 333 and 
328 b.c. By the Jews in Palestine his triumph was hailed as 
a deliverance from the oppressive Persian rule, though appar¬ 
ently it did not greatly affect conditions in Jerusalem. Jose¬ 
phus records with satisfaction Alexander’s visit to the temple 
in the high priesthood of Jaddua, whose name is the last one 
mentioned by the Chronicler. 12 That event was regarded as 
in some measure a compliment to the Jewish faith, and in 
acknowledgment it was reported that every Jewish boy born 
in the year of the conqueror’s visit was given the name Alex¬ 
ander. Certainly it became a popular name among the Jews, 
as among others. 13 However, the Macedonian looked 
with equal favor on the Samaritan community at Gerizim 
and their edition of the Pentateuch, and gave them his 
approval. 

After his early death in 323 b.c. his widely extended 
dominion fell into fragments which were later ruled by 
four of his commanders, Cassander (Macedonia), Ly- 
simachus (Thrace), Seleucus (Syria and the East) and 
Ptolemy (Egypt). The ancient monarchies were swept 
away, and Greek dynasts took their places. The Ptolemies 

12 Jos. Ant. XI, 8. 4, 5; Neh. 12:11. The late fragments in Isaiah and 
Zechariah, e.g. Isa. 24:14-16 and Zech. 9:1-8, are by some thought to refer 
to this period. It will be noticed that Josephus places the erection of the 
Samaritan temple at this time. This would seem to be much too late, but is 
in harmony with his attitude toward that community. 

13 Cf. Acts 4:6; 19:33- 


— 197— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


and Cleopatras of the later pre-Christian centuries had no 
connection with Egyptian rulers of classic times, though 
on the walls of the late temples like those at Dendara, Esneh 
and Abydos they portrayed themselves with the symbols 
and hieroglyphics of authentic Egyptian rulers. The politi¬ 
cal results of Alexander’s campaigns were limited and of 
brief duration. But the cultural consequences were pro¬ 
found. The spread of the Greek language, literature, ideas 
and customs was immediate and revolutionary. A Greek 
civilization sprang up throughout the entire near east. Pales¬ 
tinian cities like Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, Joppa, Apollonia 
and Ptolemais became centers of Greek influence. To the 
east of the Jordan the same culture spread. Hippos, Gadara, 
Pella, Gerasa (modern Jerash) and Philadelphia (modern 
Amman) were Hellenic towns with stadia, theatres, temples 
and libraries whose remains are the wonder and delight of 
the modern archeologist. 

This Greek atmosphere had a profound effect on the 
Jews, sensitive as they were to the cultural climate. Their 
numbers in all these Grecianized cities were large and in¬ 
creasing. The Jews in Egypt were already numerous. Alex¬ 
andria came presently to be the second Jewish center. They 
pushed into northern Syria, and became an important ele¬ 
ment in the population of Antioch. Between the Grecian¬ 
ized states of Syria on the north and Egypt on the south 
Palestine was subjected to a constant inundation of Greek 
influences, prominent among which were the paganizing 
tendencies of the Greek pantheon with its Olympian deities, 
so completely in contrast with the stern monotheism and 
morality of essential Judaism. 

—198 — 




The Growth of Judaism 


In the wars that presently broke out between Syria and 
Egypt the tide of conflict rolled back and forth over Pales¬ 
tine, and that unfortunate country was alternately the pos¬ 
session of one and the other of these two kingdoms. It was 
therefore subject to the disturbances, political, economic, 
cultural and religious, which such a time of foreign domi¬ 
nance would involve. Jerusalem and neighboring districts 
were overrun by Ptolemy I. Soter in 320 b.c., and many Jews 
and Samaritans were taken as captives to Egypt. 14 The 
exactions of Joseph the tax gatherer, an unscrupulous Jew 
who secured the tax-farming rights under Ptolemy III. 
Euergetes (247-222 b.c.) were symptomatic of the disorders 
of the age. With the increasing Greek influence, a different 
civilization, a new ethic and a strange type of philosophic 
and religious speculation swept in, and rapidly divided the 
Jerusalem community into liberal and conservative schools, 
the former eager followers of the Greek ideas, and the lat¬ 
ter the defenders of the laws and loyalties of Judaism. So 
rapid was the growth of the liberalizing movement that 
Greek institutions like the stadium, the theatre, the gym¬ 
nasium and debating schools of philosophy were introduced 
in Jerusalem, and Jewish youth began to wear the Hermes 
hat and other garments of Greek fashion. The Hebrew 
language had long since given place to Aramaic, save as a 
classic, and the Hellenistic Greek was now superseding both. 
Numbers of Greeks came in from the neighboring regions, 
and to all appearance Palestine, which had seemed least likely 
to follow the universal drift toward Hellenism, was on the 

14 Aristeas says that the number deported reached 100,000, and Josephus 
puts it at 120,000. 


199 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


way to a complete abandonment of its Jewish traditions 
and faith. 

In the contests between Egypt and Syria the advantage 
that lay at first with the former passed to the latter. The 
more conservative Jews favored the Ptolemies as tolerant and 
friendly. The radicals, desiring a strong Jewish nation, part 
of a great Hellenic empire, inclined to the Seleucid govern¬ 
ment in Antioch, the capital of Syria. The Ptolemies de¬ 
clined in power, and the victories of Antiochus III, the Great 
(224-187 b.c.) made him master of the entire region. The 
crisis which saved Judaism came in the reign of the usurper, 
Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, (176-164 b.c.). This king, in¬ 
sistent on the suppression of all forms of superstition and dis¬ 
sent from his Greek cultus — a resistance such as the stricter 
Jewish party represented — and encouraged by the liberal 
faction in the city, which he took to be the majority, insti¬ 
tuted a reign of persecution and terror in Jerusalem against 
the faithful, suppressed the worship at the temple, defiled 
the sanctuary, set up a shrine to Zeus in the sacred area, and 
forbade circumcision and the worship of Jahveh. Onias III, 
the venerable and beloved high priest, was deposed and his 
brother Jason was appointed by Antiochus. In the orgy of 
bloodshed which ensued many to escape martyrdom also 
fled to Egypt. It seemed that the work of Nehemiah and 
Ezra was brought to complete frustration, and that the flame 
of Judaism was quenched as that of the Hebrew life had 
been extinguished in earlier years. 

Yet this proved the salvation of the Jewish adventure. 
Antiochus totally underestimated the strength of Judaism. 
Its conflict with Hellenism was destined to give it a force 

—200 — 





The Growth of Judaism 


and coherence which only hardship could inspire. Persecu¬ 
tion united the hostile groups of Jews. In the moment when 
all seemed lost, deliverance came from a wholly unexpected 
quarter. Mattathias Asmon, 15 of the town of Modein a few 
miles from Jerusalem, a member of one of the minor priestly 
families, started a revolt against the Syrian power, and 
under the leadership of his son Judas, called the Hammer 
(Maccabee) this attempt at deliverance developed into a 
revolution in which Judas in a series of battles won victories 
over greatly superior Syrian armies, and gave the Jewish 
cause a real place in the sun. At first the Jewish scruples 
against Sabbath desecration gave Antiochus an advantage, 
and Jerusalem was entered and some of its defenders slain 
without resistance. Later these scruples were abandoned, 
though not without misgiving. The success of the Mac- 
cabean forces was an astonishment to the Syrians, whose 
armies were followed by slave merchants prepared to buy 
captive Jews for the slave markets. 

The temple was purified and worship resumed 
(165 b.c.). This was the beginning of the recognized pe¬ 
riod of Maccabean power. The war passed into a fresh 
stage. It was begun in the interest of religious liberty. 
Many of the Jews asked nothing more than the privileges 
of their worship. Judas however was not willing to cease 
the conflict short of political independence. At this point 
ended the struggle for religion and began the effort to 
secure secular power. 

While the severe measures of Antiochus unified Jewish 

15 According to Josephus {Ant. XII. 6. 1) his great-grandfather was called 
Hasmon, hence the family name of Hasmoneans or Asmoneans. 

— 201 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


sentiment to a marked degree, and prepared the way for 
the most brilliant chapter in Jewish history, there were 
exceptions. Many of the priestly aristocracy submitted and 
sought the favor of the persecutor. Onias the deposed high 
priest fled to Egypt and built a sanctuary at Leontopolis to 
assert his claims to the priesthood, and this drew many 
Jews from Jerusalem, and continued for several generations 
as a center of Jewish worship. 16 Many of the people, 
alarmed at the issue raised by the Asmonean family, took 
refuge in the wilderness, and only changed this passive re¬ 
sistance to a more aggressive attitude as they witnessed the 
success of the Maccabean movement. Antiochus died in 
164 b.c., having seen most of his plans fail. 17 He had how¬ 
ever fixed in the Jewish mind a definite and ineradicable 
anti-foreign complex which led to serious and often tragic 
results in later periods. Racial calamities have often proved 
the cause of racial pride and exclusiveness. 

On the death of Judas in the battle of Eleasa (161 b.c.) 
the leadership passed to his brother Jonathan who joined the 
high priesthood to his military activities. With Simon 
(143-135 b.c.), the third of the famous Asmonean brothers, 
came still greater honors. He was made commander, eth- 
narch and high priest, and the year 170 of the Seleucid era 
(143-142 b.c.) became the first year of the Hasmonean dy- 


16 A late portion of the book of Isaiah may contain a reference to this 
sanctuary (see Isa. 19:19). 

17 The story of the Maccabean struggle is told graphically in 1 Macca¬ 
bees, chapts. 1-10; and in the book of Daniel there is a somewhat slighting 
reference to it as “a little help” (9:34) which would hint at a date too early 
for the full significance of the movement to have been appreciated. The entire 
book is however a detailed though cryptic account of the great persecution and 
the career of Antiochus. 


— 202 — 




The Growth of Judaism 


nasty. Coins were struck bearing his name, and documents 
were dated in terms of the new chronology. He brought 
the Jewish community to a high level of prosperity. Per¬ 
haps his most notable achievement was the capture of the 
citadel of Jerusalem, which since the days of Antiochus 
Epiphanes had remained in Syrian hands. This was the last 
of the strongholds of Judea to yield, and it fell in 142 b.c. 
The temple was beautified, and there was general rejoicing. 
Soon after an embassy was sent to Rome to obtain confirma¬ 
tion of the friendship sought by Judas and Jonathan with 
that dominant power. A generous gift was presented, and 
the covenant renewed. It was broad in its terms, warn¬ 
ing the other nations against any unfriendly acts toward 
the Jews. 

Unfortunate as was this Maccabean policy of alliance 
with Rome, and fatal as it proved in the sequel, it appeared 
to Judas and his successors the wisest policy in their contest 
with Syria. In spite of its unhappy results in the later en¬ 
tanglement of Jerusalem with Rome, it gave the Jews in 
many lands a place in the regard of the Roman world, 
which was the total world known to the historian of that 
age. Never since has any political power been in position 
to give to the Jewish people a recognition of such dignity 
and breadth. The nearest approach has been the Balfour 
declaration in our own time — a declaration limited how¬ 
ever to the good offices of one European nation, and com¬ 
plicated by many involvements of a modifying character. 
All the more tragic therefore were the circumstances which 
precipitated the inevitable conflict with Rome, and blasted 
the early promise of Jewish nationality. For in slightly 


—203 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


more than two centuries the Roman power which had given 
the Jews their charter of rights, and their introduction 
to the family of states, wiped out their national existence 
and sent them forth from a ruined capital to wander home¬ 
less and undesired through the lands and the centuries, the 
victims of one of the greatest misadventures in history. 

The murder of Simon by his son-in-law, Ptolemy, gov¬ 
ernor of Jericho, was a serious disaster to the state. But the 
failure of the plot to include John, his son, spared this able 
leader for a notable career. He is known to history as John 
Hyrcanus (135-105 b.c.), and he ruled over a kingdom 
greater than that of David. In spite of the fact that the 
Maccabees sprang from a minor priestly family, if indeed 
they were even of Levitical stock, John was confirmed in 
the high priesthood, following in this regard the position of 
Jonathan and Simon. It was the period of Judah’s greatest 
glory. The nation was independent. Rome was friendly. 
An extensive program of conquest was projected. Judah, 
which had contributed so many thousands of her people to 
Egypt and other states as hired or enforced mercenary 
soldiers, was now hiring foreign troops to help in the sub¬ 
jugation of neighboring peoples. The Idumeans on the 
south and east were forcibly incorporated in the state and 
converted to Judaism. 18 This introduction of Idumean ele¬ 
ments in wholesale numbers proved the undoing of the 
Maccabean dynasty, for from that group came the Herods, 
who displaced the Hasmonean line. Many other areas were 
overrun, and their population added to the numbers of 
proselytes. In 129 b.c. the hated Samaritan temple on Mt. 

18 Jos. Ant. XIII. 9. 1. 

—204— 





The Growth of Judaism 


Gerizim was destroyed, and Samaria was again reduced to 
ruins, though the community of the Samaritans in Shechem 
(Nablous) persisted. 

Meantime there grew up in Jerusalem various parties 
or groups whose differing attitudes toward the religious and 
political movements of the time marked them off as rival 
aspirants for leadership. The rise of the Maccabean patriots 
with their heroic defense of the Torah attracted to their 
enterprise those whose chief interest was the loyal observance 
of the laws emphasized by Ezra and his generation. Gradu¬ 
ally these devoted men acquired the name of “puritans” 
or Pharisees. They were not particularly hopeful of any 
military or political revolution as promising the realization 
of their ideals, but were convinced rather that the study, 
observance and expansion of the law would prove the means 
of securing the divine favor and the prosperity of the holy 
community. The Hasmonean enterprise furnished the 
most energetic token of revived interest in religion in a time 
of deep depression, and for this reason such men gave it at 
first their approval, though they did not share its military 
hopes and had little faith in its immediate success. Their 
enthusiasm was enlisted by its early loyalty to the ideals of 
a godly community. 

Later on, as the Maccabean leaders joined the high 
priesthood to their other honors, the Pharisees lost interest 
and turned afresh to the elaboration of the laws of holiness 
and the growing apocalyptic hopes. They were little 
enamoured of the splendors of a liturgy and the ostentation 
of a political order. For this reason, among others, they 
were held in higher esteem by the people generally, and 


—205 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


were actually the religious leaders of the times. They were 
students of the entire collection of the sacred books, they 
held the doctrine of the future life and of angels, in both 
of which may be discerned something of the influence of 
the Zoroastrian faith which had spread to the west under 
Persian administration. Along with these beliefs came the 
tendency to messianic hopes, which played so important a 
part in the current and subsequent literature of Judaism. 

The Sadducees on the other hand took their name from 
the priestly tradition of Zadok, and formed the party in¬ 
sistent upon the temple services and the importance of the 
liturgical side of religion. They came to be the possessors 
of the profitable temple franchises for the sale of sacrificial 
animals and the exchange of the temple currency used for 
tithes. Their numbers included the priestly groups with 
their various orders of high priest, ordinary priests, Levites, 
nethinim and the like, and as the later Hasmoneans and the 
Herods appointed men to the chief priestly offices without 
regard to their origin or Levitical legitimacy, the tradition 
of Aaronic blood must have become increasingly attenuated 
in the later years of the Jewish state. Though representing 
the official interest in religion, they were more concerned 
with secular than with religious affairs, and were to all 
intents a political party, only slightly interested in the 
minutiae of legal observances. Like the Samaritans they 
limited their recognition of scripture to the Pentateuchal 
writings, and discovering in them no doctrine of the future 
life or of angels, they rejected these elements of the popular 
faith. All oral traditions by means of which the Pharisees 
were busily expanding the written law were by them re- 

— 206— 





The Growth of Judaism 


jected. They did not share the antipathy to Greek ideas 
which was the natural result of the Maccabean movement, 
and which was characteristic of the Pharisees. They rather 
prided themselves on their broad-minded, tolerant attitude 
toward world culture, and their superiority to the scruples 
of their rivals. 

The traditional contest between the two parties had its 
significance in the claim of the Sadducees to an aristocracy 
of Zadokite descent, however fanciful might be this “ priestly 
nobility,” while the Pharisees held to a “ nobility of learn¬ 
ing,” denoting an aristocracy of the mind, based on knowl¬ 
edge of the law, to which the uninstructed, “ this people 
that knoweth not the law,” and was therefore accursed, had 
no admission. 19 The Maccabean rulers were wise enough 
to hold aloof, for the most part, from actual adherence to 
either of these parties, though their preference for one or 
the other was often evident. They would naturally be sensi¬ 
tive to the importance of the Pharisees as popular leaders, 
yet they recognized the official prestige of the Sadducees as 
the priestly group, and in holding the office of high priest 
they were in a measure obligated to this faction. Closely 
related to the Pharisees in interest were the scribes. They 
claimed Ezra as the first of their order 20 and devoted them¬ 
selves to the activities connected with the reproduction, the 
interpretation and the expansion of the law. Naturally they 
were adherents of the Pharisees, though there were likewise 
Sadducean scribes. The importance of the scribes in the 
educational and religious life of the Jewish community finds 
many illustrations in the New Testament. 

19 John 7:49. 20 Ezra 7:6. 


— 20 7 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


The Essenes constituted still another group which prob¬ 
ably took form in this period. They were a semi-monastic 
order, living in communities in isolated districts like the 
ravines of the Jordan valley, and cultivating the holy life 
with many rules of purity that suggest ancient Semitic as 
well as later non-Jewish sources. 21 

As the territory of Jewish life widened, and the difficulty 
of centering all worship at the temple increased, a new in¬ 
stitution took form, called into being by the same needs that 
had multiplied the local sanctuaries in Hebrew days. This 
was the synagogue, whose Greek name makes evident the 
period in which it arose. The synagogue was a popular and 
democratic place of worship, in which no priestly rites 
such as sacrifice were performed, but public reading of the 
scriptures and sermons or exhortations by suitable leaders 
were the order of Sabbath observance, and there was usually 
a school in connection. How old this institution may have 
been it is impossible to say, but references in late psalms 
indicate the existence of synagogues in Persian days. 22 

One of the traditions of later Judaism related to an as¬ 
sembly called the Great Synagogue, which was supposed to 
have been organized by Ezra and continued through the 
years as a school or council of elders to decide upon questions 
relating to the collection of the sacred books, their interpre¬ 
tation and other matters of importance. This tradition re¬ 
garding such a body was late and largely fanciful. There 
was no doubt some sort of council that grew up in Maccabean 
days whose functions were both academic and political. 

21 Josephus devotes considerable attention to the Essenes. Cf. Ant. XV. 
io. 5 and Jewish War I. 3. 5; II. 7. 3; 8. 5, 11. 

22 E.g. Ps. 74:8. 

— 208 — 





The Growth of Judaism 


On the one side it developed into the rabbinical schools such 
as those at Jerusalem and later at Jamnia, Tiberias and Safed, 
especially after the Roman war, 23 and on the other into the 
ruling body known as the Sanhedrin, largely a priestly or¬ 
ganization, whose presiding officer was the high priest. 24 
This body was the local city council in Jerusalem, discharg¬ 
ing the functions of a governing group and court of justice, 
but subject to the Roman authority in capital cases and 
matters that affected the state. It is first mentioned by 
Josephus in the time of Herod, 25 and passed away with the 
fall of the city in 70 a.d. The tradition of a body called the 
Great Synagogue, whose activities were scholarly and whose 
decisions were regarded as final, is late and unreliable. It 
reads back the scribal activities of later talmudic schools 
into Maccabean days. It is thought that the celebrated 
Rabbi Akiba was the founder of the tradition. 26 

John Hyrcanus was succeeded by his son, Aristobulus, 
who added the title of king to that of high priest, thus aban¬ 
doning all pretense of lineal relation of royalty to the house 
of David, as the claim of Aaronic descent had been largely 
forgotten in the case of the priesthood. The regions of 
Iturea and Galilee were added to Jewish territory at this 
time, and the people were forcibly subjected to the rite of 
circumcision. 27 After a brief reign of a single year he was 

23 The temple school at Jerusalem was apparently a college for the 
instruction of scribes and other teachers, and its members constituted a scholarly 
group in which religious questions could be discussed. In these respects it pos¬ 
sessed the dual functions of a modern theological school. Cf. John 2:46. 

24 Cf. Matt. 26:57-60; Mark 14:55, 60; 15:1; Luke 22:66; Acts 4:5, 6, 15; 
5:21, 27, 34, 41; 6:12, 15; 22:30; 23:1-9. 

25 Jos. Ant. XIV. 10. 4. 

26 See the Jewish Encyclopedia, 11, p. 640. 

27 Jos. Ant. XIII. 11. 3- 

— 209 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


followed by Alexander Jannaeus in 104 b.c. The vicious 
character and turbulent disposition of this man kept the 
nation in turmoil, external and civil, during most of his 
reign of a quarter of a century. The disgrace which he 
brought upon the office of high priest was a constant offense 
to the Pharisees, and though he added many of the Greek 
cities to his territory, he brought the Maccabean name to its 
lowest level and the state to almost complete secularization. 

During the rule of his widow, Alexandra (78-69 b.c.), 
the Pharisees came into recognized power, but although 
reforms were instituted, particularly in the area of education, 
the evil results of the previous years remained and increased. 
Hyrcanus II, the weak son of Alexander Jannaeus, and his 
younger but abler brother Aristobulus now contended for 
the kingdom, while the Roman power under Pompey was 
gradually taking possession of Judea, and the last remnants 
of the glorious Maccabean dynasty disappeared. The un¬ 
happy results of the appeal to Rome by Judas and Jonathan 
were revealed: Judea became a Roman province. The in¬ 
dependence which the Jews enjoyed for a brief and brilliant 
moment came to an end. The title of ethnarch replaced 
that of king and passed from Jewish into Edomite hands. 
Pompey profaned the temple by his intrusion into its mys¬ 
teries, and the romance of those early patriots of Modein, 
Beth-horon and Emmaus vanished in the deepening twi¬ 
light of a subjugated province. The period of Jewish inde¬ 
pendence had lasted only eighty years (142-63 b.c.). 

Two sinister names now appeared for the first time on 
the records of Judea — those of Rome and the Idumean 
Herods, names destined to leave lengthening shadows over 


—210 — 





The Growth of Judaism 


the history. In his extension of the Roman power to the east, 
Pompey entered Syria in the year 66 b.c. and in the follow¬ 
ing year besieged and conquered Jerusalem, whose walls 
were demolished, though the temple was left standing. 28 
This conquest of the city was attended by the slaughter of 
a multitude of the inhabitants, one of the many massacres 
that have befallen this unhappy place. Many others of the 
people were taken to Rome, and formed the nucleus of the 
large Jewish colony later settled there. This established 
the Roman rule in Palestine, though the weak Hyrcanus II 
now a Roman vassal continued as nominal king and high 
priest, with his nephews Alexander and Antigonus as rival 
claimants for the titles. 

His prime minister was a certain Antipas or Antipater, 
an Idumean or Edomite, whose clan had been driven into 
Judah by the Nabateans of Petra 29 and absorbed into the 
population. This man, who was the father of Herod the 
Great, was later provided with a Hebrew pedigree by ac¬ 
commodating Jews who were sensitive regarding a foreign 
king on the throne of Jerusalem. 30 Antipater by his ability, 
and the favor in which he stood with Hyrcanus and Pompey, 
came to be a man of importance in Judea, and was presently 
made procurator of the province. He appointed his older 
son, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem, and his second son, 
Herod, governor of Coele-Syria and Galilee. After Pom¬ 
pey 1 s death, Antipater aligned himself with Julius Caesar 
and secured his favor by numerous services. This was of 

28 Tacitus, History, V. 9. 

29 Isa. 63:1-6 may refer to this expulsion of Edomites and the at¬ 
tending massacres. 

30 Jos. Ant. XIV. 1. 3; cf. Godbey, op. at., p. 164. 

— 211 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


advantage to the people, whose nominal ruler Hyrcanus was 
declared hereditary high priest and ethnarch, and in other 
ways Caesar’s attitude was favorable to the Jews, who 
mourned his death. The murder of Antipater by servants 
of Hyrcanus did not break the hold his house had secured 
on the land, for he had proved himself stronger than either 
the king, Hyrcanus, or the two contenders for the throne, 
his nephews Alexander and Antigonus. 

Herod and Phasael were now the real masters of the 
land. In spite of a deputation of Jews sent to Rome to pro¬ 
test to Antony against their rule, they were confirmed as 
tetrarchs, and Hyrcanus was limited to the high priesthood. 
Herod attempted to increase his popularity by marrying 
Mariamne, granddaughter of Hyrcanus, whose connection 
with the Maccabean family brought him a measure of favor. 
Herod was a singular combination of ability, culture and 
cruelty. He crushed the robbers in Galilee, and paid his 
share of the heavy tribute laid on the land by Crassus, after 
Caesar’s death. But he was distrusted and hated by the 
Jews, whose most revered leaders he defied and affronted. 
During an invasion of the Parthians he was a fugitive, but 
later, by the favor of Antony, Octavius and the Roman sen¬ 
ate, he completed the conquest of Palestine by the capture of 
Jerusalem with terrible slaughter of the people after a siege 
of five months. The last of the Maccabean claimants to 
power was put to death, and Herod was recognized by 
Antony as king of Judea 31 (37 b.c.). 

31 Tacitus, op. cit., V. 9. Herod’s wives and their children were as fol¬ 
lows: Doris (Antipater); Mariamne (Herod Philip); Malthaca of Samaria (An- 
tipas, Archelaus, Olympias); Cleopatra of Jerusalem (Herod and Philip); Pallas 
(Phasaelus); Phedra (Roxana); Elpis (Salome). 

— 212 — 




The Growth of Judaism 


His reign of more than thirty years was marked by 
singular ability in military affairs, so that his domain equalled 
the most extensive Palestinian dominion of the past. He 
constructed fortresses, not only in Jerusalem (the walls, the 
tower of Antonia, his own palace and the temple, all of 
which were military defenses) but as well in Samaria (Se- 
baste), Caesarea, Straton’s Tower and Hesbon east of the 
Jordan. He took deep interest in the architectural enrich¬ 
ment of his kingdom through the erection of costly struc¬ 
tures, statues and other public ornaments. 

He promoted the culture of the country on Greek and 
Roman lines. His purposes resembled those of Antiochus 
Epiphanes, nearly a century and a half before, though he 
was less inclined to disturb religious conditions than the 
Syrian king. He was content to allow the people to pursue 
their cultus, though he must have offended the godly by 
the secularization of common life, and the introduction of 
heathen seductions, such as races, gladiatorial fights and 
the pagan theatre. His chief purpose was the attaining of 
power, and he was ruthless as to the means he used. He was 
impulsive and despotic. Hrs spies lurked everywhere to 
bring him reports that were often the basis of erratic and 
vindictive punishments. His policy was one of terrorization. 
Knowing he was hated of all but his favorites he lived 
in constant suspicion, and even his most intimate friends 
were never trusted. His two objectives were his own 
unquestioned and despotic power and the favor of 
Rome. He understood that his Roman masters wished 
to promote Hellenism in the empire, and he was active 
in furthering this movement not only in Jerusalem but 


-213 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


in the other cities of Palestine, both west and east of the 
Jordan. 

A policy of this order naturally offended the men of 
religious conviction. Herod became the object of increasing 
aversion on the part of the Pharisees. Even the costly and 
beautiful temple which he erected as the national sanctuary 
could compensate the pious but little for the secularization 
and degradation of morals and religion. The Sadducees 
were almost equally disturbed, for although their order com¬ 
posed the priestly aristocracy, and to them fell the profits of 
the temple traffic, yet Herod’s arbitrary shifting of the high 
priestly office from one incumbent to another, without re¬ 
gard even to the pretense of Levitic regularity, rendered him 
increasingly hateful to the real lovers of the Torah and 
the temple. 

That building was indeed the object of pride to every 
Jew. It represented the most elaborate attempt made by the 
king to placate his offended subjects. It was begun in his 
fifteenth year and required more than ten years to build. 
In fact further work went on until 64 a.d., almost within the 
shadow of its final destruction. 32 It was erected on the site 
of the temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel, and a portion of 
the latter structure had to be demolished to make room for 
it. A section of its outer inclosure is now exposed, and con¬ 
stitutes the so-called Wailing Wall on the western side of 
the harem site. It was a sanctuary, a market, a school and a 
fortress combined, and was the last structure save the upper 
city to be taken by the Romans in 70 a.d. 

The final days of Herod’s rule were a reign of terror to 

32 Cf. John 2:20. Jos. Ant. XC. n. 1-6. 

— 214 — 




The Growth of Judaism 


the nation, the city, his officials and his family. His brother- 
in-law, Aristobulus, had been drowned at Jericho, at his 
command. Two of his sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, 
were murdered at Samaria by his orders. The aged high 
priest and ex-king, Hyrcanus, met the same fate. His adored 
wife, Mariamne, of whom he was insanely jealous, fell a vic¬ 
tim to his madness, and her mother died with her. An¬ 
tipater, a surviving son, was executed five days before the 
tyrant’s death, and two distant relatives of Hyrcanus were 
killed in the same ruthless way, that the last of Maccabean 
blood might be destroyed. Knowing the execration in which 
he was held, in a burst of fury he ordered the massacre of 
the principal men of the city as soon as he should die, that 
there might be a genuine cause for grief at his death. For¬ 
tunately this ghastly command was not carried out. But the 
whole city rejoiced when the news of his end was announced. 

Thus came to its sombre close the career of this brilliant 
soldier, ambitious ruler, insatiable builder, clever politician, 
conscienceless egotist and bloody monster, Herod, miscalled 
the Great. And at that very time (4 b.c.) in Nazareth a 
village in Galilee a young child whom the king in alarm 
had tried to add to the list of his victims, was beginning a 
career which was destined to change the course of history. 

During this period of the beginning and first stage in 
the era of Judaism a considerable literature took form. Due 
to the fact that Nehemiah and Ezra, the founders of the 
Jewish community in Jerusalem, were Hebrews from the 
east, and that the new community was built on the site of 
the ancient capital of David’s kingdom, the writings pro¬ 
duced in the early years were in the Hebrew language, in 


— 215 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


which the classic literature of ancient Israel had been re¬ 
corded, and which was held in reverence as the historic and 
sacred tongue of the land. It was a disappearing speech. 
The people of the province were using a later, commercial 
language known as Aramaic, or the confused patois of the 
neighboring tribes. 33 But the cultural influence and author¬ 
ity of the language of prophets, priests and psalmists of the 
past was sufficient to fix the pattern of literary work in the 
Hebrew form, at least for a generation or two. As Latin 
continued to be the language of scholarship in Italy long 
after it had ceased to be the speech of the people, so in Judah 
the men of priestly or prophetic spirit who wrote at all em¬ 
ployed the language of the past. 

The number of such literary productions was small in 
the new community; at least few have survived from that 
era. The interests of the province were too serious and 
pressing to encourage extensive authorship. A few docu¬ 
ments however have remained as witnesses to the intellectual 
and religious activities of the age. Of these the earliest and 
one of the most important, a true beginning of Jewish litera¬ 
ture, is the journal of Nehemiah, 34 which the Chronicler 
later used as the nucleus of his narrative of this period. It 
is the graphic and straightforward recital in the first person 
of the events which led to the courageous and sacrificial 
work of the great chamberlain in rescuing Jerusalem from 
oblivion, and organizing the beginnings of Jewish life. 35 
The journal of Ezra, or the portion of the Chronicler’s docu- 

33 Neh. 13:23, 24. 

34 Neh. 1:1-7:73a. This document probably belongs to the end of the 
fifth century b.c. 

35 See page 138. 

— 2l6 — 




The Growth of Judaism 


ment which refers to Ezra’s ministry in the first person, 36 
purports to be a first-hand record of the work of that leader. 
If such were the case, it would be a document of great sig¬ 
nificance in its description of events connected with the 
introduction of the Priest Code, and the reforms then at¬ 
tempted. Its literary characteristics however are so largely 
those of the Chronicler himself that the judgment of scholars 
inclines to the opinion that it is the product of the Chroni¬ 
cler’s own pen, and its date the last part of the fourth cen¬ 
tury or the early years of the third b.c. Certain it is that the 
atmosphere, vocabulary and assumptions of the Chronicler’s 
age are distinguishing features of this section as of the other 
portions of Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah. 

The Third Isaiah 37 and the book of Joel seem to have 
come from the early part of the fourth century. They give 
vivid impressions of the difficulties confronting the province, 
such as the rivalry of the Samaritan community, the preva¬ 
lence of pagan practices among the citizens of Jerusalem, 
the struggle of the faithful to maintain the ideals of their 
leaders, and the divine warnings embodied in such visita¬ 
tions as the locust plague. The growing antagonism toward 
the neighboring clans, as disclosed in Joel, makes evident 
a sense of superiority and disdain on the part of an increas¬ 
ing section of the population. Certain of the psalms reflect 
the political and social hardships of this age, to which refer¬ 
ence has already been made. The most notable of the 
literary products of the fourth century was the book of Job, 
a work of apologetic intent, undertaking in the form of an 
elaborate poetic debate to justify the divine providence in 

36 Ezra 7:27-9:15. 37 Isaiah, chapts. 56-66. 

—217— 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


the misfortunes which had befallen the community. The 
evidences of Edomite background and influence in the work 
afford further indication of the important part the men of 
that infusion were taking in the affairs of Judea. 

Two brief works of the end of the Persian or the begin¬ 
ning of the Greek age reveal the growing cleavage between 
the insular sentiments of the legalists and the more hos¬ 
pitable attitude of those of the prophetic spirit. These are 
the books of Ruth and Jonah, both works of fiction and both 
set in the framework of the distant past, but manifestly in¬ 
tended as tracts for the time to protest against the increasing 
antipathy manifested by the conservatives against non-Jews. 
The theme of Ruth is the loyalty and nobility of a Moabite 
woman, and her place in the ancestral line of David. Jonah 
holds up to censure the ungracious and bigoted nationalism 
of an alleged prophet of Jahveh whose hostility to a heathen 
city is set in contrast with the divine compassion. 

Somewhere in the period between 330 and 250 b.c. the 
triple document, Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah, would seem 
to fall. Its general characteristics and motives have been 
discussed already. It remains only to observe that the intent 
of the author to record his own understanding of the origin 
and early stages of Judaism becomes increasingly clear as 
his narrative proceeds. His sources are the prophetic books 
of Samuel-Kings with valuable additions from other hands. 
His assumption is that the Mosaic institutes have been in 
force from the beginnings of Hebrew life, and that the pres¬ 
ent Jewish community is continuous with the Hebrew na¬ 
tion of the past. To convey this impression he insists that 
the majority of the survivors of the siege of Jerusalem in 

—218 — 




The Growth of Judaism 


586 b.c. were conveyed to Babylon, and that upon the acces¬ 
sion of Cyrus the Persian in 538 a great company of these 
exiles returned to Palestine and rebuilt the city. Further, 
that with Ezra and Nehemiah came other important com¬ 
panies of Hebrew stock, and that the revived community in 
Judea was thus in direct descent from the historic Israel. In 
proof of this theory the Chronicler employs genealogical 
lists, in whose contrivance or use he makes clear his skill. 
The reasons for regarding this thesis as lacking in validity 
have been set forth in a former chapter. 38 It is unnecessary 
to assume that there was deliberate deception on the Chroni¬ 
cler’s part. He wrote at a time long after the beginnings of 
the Jewish state, and the account given by him had doubt¬ 
less become the accepted tradition. Such assumed connec¬ 
tion with an honorable past is the natural craving of any 
self-conscious people, and has many illustrations in history. 

To the early part of the third century belongs the book 
of Canticles, or the Song of Songs, a charming collection of 
love and marriage lyrics. The influence of the Aramaic 
language was already manifesting itself in literary style and 
vocabulary, and is particularly marked in the book of Kohe- 
leth, strangely named Ecclesiastes, which reflects the specu¬ 
lative spirit of the early Greek age with its humanistic and 
universalistic tendencies, when Jerusalem was yielding to 
the fascinations of Hellenic philosophy. In this work the 
prevailing pessimism of the age is displayed, and the practice 
of using an ancient authority (Solomon in this case) as the 
assumed author is illustrated. A more constructive work 
is the Wisdom of Solomon, written in Greek, and worthy of 

38 See pages 135 ff. 

— 219 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


a place in the canon. Doubtless such would have been its 
assignment if its Hebrew spirit had been clothed in Hebrew 
words. In it the greatness of Judaism is proclaimed. 

The large and growing Jewish population in Egypt, 
with whom Greek had become the literary language, could 
no longer read the Hebrew scriptures, and needed a version 
for its synagogues and schools. In the reign of Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, about 250 b.c., such a translation of the extant 
books of the Old Testament was undertaken by Jewish 
scholars, and gradually completed in the course of a genera¬ 
tion or two. From the tradition that seventy learned men 
were chosen for the task it acquired the name of The Seventy 
(Septuagint or LXX). This was the first translation of the 
scriptures, and was the Bible of the widely scattered Jews 
of Jesus’ day and of the early Christians. 

To the first years of the second century b.c. probably 
belongs the romance of Esther, written in Hebrew and re¬ 
flecting the intense hatred of non-Jews felt by a portion of 
the community, along with curious indifference to names 
of heathen divinities borne by Jews, such as Mordecai (Mar- 
duk) and Esther (Ishtar). Six additional chapters form a 
Greek appendix to the book. 39 Of proximate date is the 
Hebrew text of the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or 
Ecclesiasticus, an admirable volume of reflections upon 
morals and religion. It was translated into Greek by the 
author’s grandson about the year 132 b.c., and is one of the 
most valuable portions of the Apocrypha. 

The singular type of writing known as apocalyptic took 
form in the period following the rise of Judaism. It was an 

39 Chapters X-XVI, found in the Apocrypha. 

— 220 — 





The Growth of Judaism 


effort by means of symbols and figurative language to con¬ 
vey to the faithful a measure of encouragement in the dark 
days of persecution, such as that waged by Antiochus. 
Emphasis was placed on the certainty of early supernatural 
deliverance from present troubles. It was a cryptic form of 
writing in which impending political and social movements 
were forecast in terms of catastrophic events, or in the forms 
of animals, usually composite and mythical. It made exten¬ 
sive use of angels, sacred numbers, colors, etc. It was a type 
of verbal picture-writing, undertaken by people who con¬ 
ceived themselves forbidden to employ the art patterns of 
portraiture or the representation of any order of animal life. 
The vivid figures of speech and parabolic manner of teaching 
employed by prophets like Zephaniah and Ezekiel may have 
suggested a still further use of picture language, coupled 
with the purpose to restrict to the initiated the meaning of 
the messages conveyed. Apocalyptic in its true form is 
found only among Jewish and Jewish-Christian writers of 
the period from 200 b . c . to 100 a . d ., although works patterned 
on this model but of less significance, continued to appear 
in later periods of Judaism. 

In the second and third sections of Zechariah examples 
of this literary form are found. But the books of Enoch and 
Daniel are the most outstanding instances of its use. In both 
cases an ancient worthy is chosen as the mouthpiece of the 
author’s message. This type of pseudographic composition 
is characteristic of the entire series of apocalyptic works. 
In the book of Enoch there are several sections dating ap¬ 
parently from different periods, but all concerned with the 
fortunes of the Jewish people and their future. The back- 


— 221 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


ground is the Syrian persecution of 175-164 b.c. Similar, 
though more concrete and vivid, is the message of the book 
of Daniel, whose language is partly Hebrew and partly 
Aramaic. Here the venerable figure of the prophet Daniel 
is employed in a series of stories illustrative of courage and 
loyalty to the law, and a series of visions dealing directly 
with the current distress and with the Syrian king, under 
the guise of the Babylonian Nebuchadrezzar, whose name in 
the later books of the Old Testament is given the form 
Nebuchadnezzar. The closing chapters give a long and de¬ 
tailed account of Jewish experiences up to the author’s time 
in the guise of prediction. 

The book of Jubilees (often called “ Little Genesis ”) 
was written in Hellenistic Greek, about the beginning of the 
first century b.c., and reviewed the story of the world from 
creation to Sinai in the spirit of Pharisaism. It was a de¬ 
fense of Judaism, its ordinances and traditions, and sug¬ 
gests the early phases of talmudic comment. To the first 
century before Christ belong the Psalms of Solomon, a col¬ 
lection of eighteen Pharisean utterances directed chiefly 
against the Sadducees, and voicing in an exalted tone the 
messianic hope of the time. 

Tobit and Judith are Jewish romances depicting phases 
of Jewish beliefs and traditions. The two books of Macca¬ 
bees deal with the Jewish uprising against the Syrian power, 
and the heroic exploits and sufferings of its heroes. Prob¬ 
ably 1 Maccabees was written in Hebrew, but it has been 
preserved only in the Greek form. Greek additions to the 
book of Daniel, such as Bel and the Dragon, Susanna, and 
the Song of the Three Holy Children, are found in the 

— 222 — 





The Growth of Judaism 


Apocrypha. To the same age, in the first century b.c., belong 
the book of Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremy. Some of the 
psalms in the book that bears that name come from periods 
as late as the Maccabean revolution. 

With these varied characteristics and experiences Juda¬ 
ism came to its most distinct and conspicuous expression in 
the days when Jesus of Nazareth was preparing for his 
ministry. Only the most prophetic mind could perceive the 
presence of forces that would soon bring that vigorous 
political and social institution, the Jerusalem community, 
to its tragic and untimely end. 


— 223 — 




VIII 

JEW AND CHRISTIAN 

Biblical literature presents in two impressive chapters 
the early story of monotheistic religion. The first of these 
chapters relates to the Hebrew people, with whom mono¬ 
theism came first to realization after centuries of struggle. 
It includes all the writings of the Old Testament down to 
the close of the Hebrew state and the virtual cessation of 
the prophetic function. Broadly this means the documents 
that were written in Hebrew, although some of the late 
books in the collection were still written in that tongue after 
the beginning of the Jewish period. 

The second chapter deals with the three daughter faiths 
which inherited immediately or more remotely the Hebrew 
tradition. These were in their order Samaritanism, Judaism 
and Christianity. The first of these, although it issued di¬ 
rectly from the Hebrew organization and survived as a frag¬ 
ment of its life at the collapse of the kingdom of Israel in 
721 b.c., was limited to the territory contiguous to Samaria, 
produced little literature of value, and continues as a small 
and diminishing group today. 

Judaism, the product of the notable activities of Nehe- 
miah and Ezra, took form in the fifth century b.c., developed 
into a strong and influential state under the Maccabees, pro¬ 
duced a significant body of institutions and literature, but 
met its complete political overthrow in the shattering 


-224 — 


Jew and Christian 


calamity of the Roman war and the destruction of Jerusalem 
in 70 a.d. Far from destroying them however this tragedy 
dispersed the Jews into the entire Graeco-Roman world and 
beyond, and stimulated a loyalty to Jewish institutions which 
has continued through the centuries, and is today the char¬ 
acteristic token of Judaism in all lands. 

In the first century of the present era a third movement 
grew up in Palestine, whose ideals were rooted in the 
ancient Hebrew life, whose background and foil was Juda¬ 
ism, and whose founder was the Galilean teacher and 
prophet, Jesus of Nazareth. 

In the biblical sources the references to the Samaritans 
are infrequent though occurrent both in the Old Testament 
and the New. The Jewish people and their institutions are 
the theme, and they furnished the authors, of the later litera¬ 
ture of the Old Testament, some of it in the classic Hebrew, 
some in Aramaic, and some in Hellenistic Greek; while 
constant reference is made to them in the New Testament 
as forming the environment of the nascent Christian com¬ 
munity. The New Testament is the collection of writings 
which grew up around the life of Jesus and the early church. 
Most of its writers were Jewish Christians. The Bible thus 
embraces in these two somewhat overlapping chapters the 
total surviving literature of the Hebrew race, most of the 
early writings of the Jewish people, and that section of primi¬ 
tive Christian records which the early church regarded as of 
greatest authority among its rapidly growing documents. 

The rise of Judaism was the salvation of monotheism 
and of ethical religion. Although the Hebrew records, em¬ 
bodying the messages of prophets, priests and psalmists, had 


— 225 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


been carried by departing refugees and emigrants from 
Palestine into various regions after the collapse of Hebrew 
institutions, and although these expatriates carried in their 
hearts a measure of loyalty to the past, there was little pros¬ 
pect that the ideals which had found utterance and expres¬ 
sion in Palestine, and particularly in Judea, would become 
more than locally normative in any part of the world. The 
resolute purpose of Nehemiah to found a new colony on 
the ancient site of Jerusalem, and to gather in such members 
of that and other communities as should offer themselves 
for the new adventure, was the fresh starting point in the 
worship of the God of Israel. 

The gathered populace of the new town represented 
many clans and cults, probably most of them polytheistic. 
But the very novelty of the conception of one deity in an 
area where one world ruler, the Persian king, held sway, 
together with the increasingly ornate ritual of the temple 
service and its elaborate code of laws, proved sufficiently 
attractive to launch the new community on a promising 
career. It was a critical hour in the history of religion. In 
the long perspective of the centuries it is plain that it was 
a matter of life or death. Jerusalem might have accepted 
the religion and ethical pattern of Susa or Damascus or 
Athens or Rome, and the rich inheritance left from the days 
of Amos and Isaiah would have been lost. In that case, so 
far as the student of world events can discern, there would 
have been no Judaism and no Christianity. In a very true 
sense those men who builded the walls of Jerusalem in the 
fifth century b.c. held the future in their keeping, and were 
shaping the religion of humanity. 

— 226— 




Jew and Christian 


It was probably inevitable that the new community, in 
whose area all semblance of monarchy had been swept away 
by repeated tragedies, should readily adapt itself to priestly 
control. The laws promulgated by Ezra, the co-founder of 
the state and the actual organizer of Judah’s constitution, 
gave to the priests the supreme place in the social order. 
Claiming direct descent from the priesthood of Hebrew 
times, these men held undisputed control not only of re¬ 
ligious but of secular affairs. There was danger in this, as 
there always is in uncontested ecclesiastical power. As 
viewed by an increasing company of the devout, their order 
became a menace to the spirit of religion, largely exhausting 
their interests apparently in the observances of the sanctuary. 
Hence there grew up the contest between the Sadducees, the 
priestly class, and the men devoted to the study and elabora¬ 
tion of the law, the Pharisees. Probably this controversy 
was of real value to the religious life of the age. Just as the 
antagonism between priests and prophets in ancient Israel 
brought a wholesome freshening to the thought of their 
time, so the give-and-take of the disputes between Sadducees 
and Pharisees was of value to Judiasm. 

During the period preceding the Maccabean uprising 
there were many vicissitudes of fortune in the province. 
Judah had lost its tradition of royalty and was in reality a 
congregation. While the temple was the picturesque center 
of its worship, the synagogue was the ordinary and popular 
expression of its faith, and the pattern of its thinking and its 
social life. It provided not only an institution for public 
worship, but a stimulus to the study of the law. The activi¬ 
ties of the scribes were gradually elaborating the legal rules 


— 227 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


for personal and domestic behavior, and in this pursuit the 
more devoted members of the community found their refuge 
from current evils and their hope for better days. To men 
of the Pharisean leaning the knowledge of the law — the 
Torah of Moses, with its growing fringe of commentation 
— was the secret of piety. In the troubled times through 
which they were passing the observance of minute regula¬ 
tions of daily conduct afforded genuine comfort to the de¬ 
vout. If the prescriptions of the Torah as interpreted by the 
scribes seemed at times trivial, who was to judge between the 
great and the small as viewed by the Eternal ? Certain it is 
that in all ages of Judaism since its beginnings, life under 
the law has brought to multitudes of Jews a peace and happi¬ 
ness which enabled them to endure hardships otherwise un¬ 
endurable. It was not strange that the Pharisees, devoted 
as they were to the scholarly labors which centered in the 
scriptures, enjoyed the confidence and reverence of the com¬ 
mon people to a degree unapproached by any other class. 

The Maccabean struggle in the second century b.c. gave 
fresh vitality to Judaism, oppressed as it was by foreign con¬ 
trol, poverty and declining enthusiasm. The effort to force 
upon Judah a Hellenistic culture, already prevalent and 
attractive, roused the faithful to desperate courage, and saved 
afresh the religion of the one God. The pious champions of 
the law flocked to the Maccabean standard, and set them¬ 
selves to revive the neglected or threatened Jewish rites. 
New feasts like Purim and Khanuka 1 were added to the 
calendar. The Hasmonean heroes became the objects of 

1 The Feast of Lights, commemorating the rededication of the temple 
in 165 b.c. 


— 228 — 




Jew and Christian 


almost idolatrous regard. The high priesthood was given 
new dignity, and presently was added to the official honors 
of the rulers. It was thereby made at once more splendid 
and more worldly. The Maccabean kings gradually changed 
the religious community of Nehemiah and Ezra into a 
secular state. The Sadducean party, with its temple con¬ 
nections and perquisites, became the ruling group, the new 
aristocracy. 

These events aroused in Pharisean circles alarm and 
resentment. Disillusioned by the tendencies in church and 
state, they withdrew more and more from support of the 
government and found refuge in fresh devotion to the 
Torah, in messianic hopes for the coming of a righteous 
king and in apocalyptic forecasts. The breach between 
them and the Sadducees widened, and the controversies were 
increasingly bitter. Meantime the Council of Elders, the 
Sanhedrin, fell into the control first of one party and then 
the other, while the later Maccabean rulers wavered in their 
leanings toward the two groups. The common people, per¬ 
plexed by the prevailing political and ecclesiastical polemics, 
were too frequently the victims of self-seeking leaders and 
delusive expectations. 

It must not be supposed that the populace of Jerusalem 
and its suburbs was possessed of a common mind on any of 
the themes of politics or religion. From the first the citizen¬ 
ship of the Jewish state was of highly mixed character. Its 
varied elements were fused into a measurably common mold 
by the exciting experiences of the first years, and later by 
the thrilling events of the Maccabean revolution. But there 
were as many different types as would be found in an Ameri- 


—229 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


can city, whose people represent different racial stocks, in¬ 
dustrial activities, moral levels and political prejudices. 
These varieties of interest find echoes in the literature of 
the period. Naturally those writings which reflect the 
deeper religious sentiments of the time have survived in 
the canonical and extra-canonical sources. They reveal the 
spiritual yearnings, the efforts to find comfort in prayer and 
meditations upon the scriptures, in fasting, almsgiving and 
the other pieties of synagogue and family, as a relief from 
the perplexities of life. 

It is unfortunate that there is no outstanding character 
in all this period who represents Judaism. Great men there 
were, like Simon the Just, Judas the Hammer and the faith¬ 
ful and beloved Onias III. But none of these represents 
Judaism as Isaiah stands for the Hebrew age or Paul for 
Christianity. In other respects as well the Jew of that time 
suffered limitations. His art life was restricted by a law 
supposed to have come down from Moses forbidding the 
creation of statues or paintings as dangerous temptations to 
idolatry, and it was only in later centuries that he broke 
away from this prohibition, which shackles Islam even to 
the present. He took refuge therefore in the word-artistry 
which plays so conspicuous a part in the literature of 
apocalypse. 

As the political hopes aroused by the Maccabean dynasty 
faded before the power of Rome, and gave place to apoca¬ 
lyptic expectations of an era of glory soon to be ushered 
in, there grew up in Jewish circles a passion for the mission¬ 
ary extension of their faith in the neighboring lands and 
throughout the Graeco-Roman world. Conscious of the 


—230 — 




Jew and Christian 


immense superiority of their monotheistic belief and their 
high moral code to the paganism around them, they under¬ 
took an expansion of the area of Judaism which for a time 
was highly successful. At first this was political and terri¬ 
torial. The anti-foreign complex which was the result of 
Syrian persecution and the inroads of Hellenism gave way 
before the desire to open the doors of their religious life to 
the stranger. Successive invasions of Edom brought that 
people under Jewish control and under John Hyrcanus added 
great numbers to the confessors of the faith. Judas Aristo- 
bulus, his son, conquered Ituria and forced its people to 
submit to circumcision. Hebrew oracles were recalled 
predicting that men of other bloods would claim fellow¬ 
ship with the Jew. 2 Proselytes from other lands embraced 
the religion of the Torah. Izates, king of Adiabene, a 
district in Mesopotamia, adopted Judaism, and his mother 
Helena became a convert. 

This evangelistic phase of the movement penetrated 
remote regions. Jews in the diaspora were sought out by 
missionaries from Jerusalem, 3 and strangers were given a 
welcome. In due time the propaganda took on a more 
intellectual phase, in which Jewish writers sought to in¬ 
terpret Judaism favorably to men of Greek culture and 
refute the charge that it was a recent provincial and bigoted 
religion. 4 Jesus commented on the efforts of the Jews to 
convert people to their faith. 5 The movement failed at last, 
both because of the growing disapproval of the leading 

2 Zech. 8:23. 

3 Ecclus. 31:9-11. 

4 This was the effort of Philo; also of the Sibylline oracles. See Schiirer, 
Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Vol. IV. 

5 Matt. 23:15. 


—231— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


rabbis, who were disinclined to offer the high privileges of 
Judaism to the pagan world; and because of the evangelistic 
zeal and success of Christian missionaries. 

Closely related to the general problem of proselytism 
was the growing cleavage between two types of thinking 
upon the subject of Judah’s relation to the outer world of 
non-Jewish life. As far back as the days immediately fol¬ 
lowing the Babylonian overthrow of Jerusalem devout 
Hebrews had pondered the matter. Did Israel exist for its 
own sake, and did its chief interest lie in the safeguarding 
and perpetuation of its own life and institutions, or did it 
have a mission to the wider world ? Ezekiel was no narrow 
nationalist, and yet his chief concern seems to have been 
the restoration of the holy city, the temple and its min¬ 
istries. The future of Israel was of supreme moment to 
him. Being of priestly stock, he prepared an expansion of 
the national institutes which, though never actually put into 
operation, served as a contribution to the more elaborate 
Priest Code on which Ezra based his drastic reforms. The 
impression made by the messages of Ezekiel is that of the 
incomparable value of Israel in the sight of Jahveh, and his 
supreme solicitude for its continuing welfare. 

On the other hand a contemporary of Ezekiel’s, per¬ 
haps the most impressive voice in the succession of prophets, 
the Second Isaiah, was of a different mind. Not less inter¬ 
ested than his colleague in the revival of the nation, he had 
a wider vision of its duty and destiny. The classic oracle 
that discloses the heart of his appeal to his scattered brethren, 
but particularly to that mystic Servant of Jahveh, the de¬ 
voted nucleus around which the dispersed Hebrews were to 


—232 — 




Jew and Christian 


rally, is this: “ It is too slight a thing for your being my 
servant that I should but raise up the tribes of Jacob; so I 
will make you a light of the nations, that my salvation may 
reach to the end of the earth.” 6 This gave a new curve to 
the line of Israel’s divine calling. It was to be a cosmic not a 
parochial task. 

When the Jewish state was organized by its devoted 
founders, Nehemiah and Ezra, it was inevitable that the 
first of these divergent tendencies should have the right of 
way. The building up of a commonwealth on priestly 
foundations was the chief concern of these pioneers. To 
weld together the divergent elements in the new community, 
and give them a motive for existence and a pattern of con¬ 
duct was of first importance. Neither the citizens nor the 
leaders of the new state were interested in philanthropies 
beyond their immediate limit. Their only solicitude regard¬ 
ing the wider groups was to add them as subjects or prose¬ 
lytes to the growing citizenship of Jerusalem. Further¬ 
more, many of the experiences of the troubled years that 
followed sharpened the edge of aversion to the pagan world 
and fixed in the Jews a definite anti-gentile complex. They 
rightly regarded themselves as the moral and religious su¬ 
periors of the rest of mankind. That mind-set found expres¬ 
sion in such works as Joel, in Daniel and others of the 
apocalypses, and easily ran to the arrogant chauvinism of 
the book of Esther. 

There were men of a different mood, however, who 
were dissatisfied with these unfriendly attitudes toward other 
nations, and made their protests in documents that have 

6 Isa. 49:6, Smith translation. 

— 233 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


survived. The books of Ruth and Jonah are of this order, 
and they must have echoed the sentiments of a considerable 
minority in Jerusalem. In such writings one finds apprecia¬ 
tion of neighboring peoples like Moab, and even heathen 
cities like Nineveh, commonly the subjects of invective in 
the prophetic and legal documents of the past. Of these 
two tendencies in the thinking of early Judaism, the former 
and narrower must have been much the stronger. The 
priestly party, the Sadducees, attached too much value to the 
ritual of the temple to admit the unholy heathen to their 
approval. The Pharisees, experts in the technicalities of the 
Torah, though far closer to the rank and file of the people 
than their rivals, arrogantly held themselves above the un¬ 
instructed mass. 7 Much more disdainful would be their 
attitude toward men of pagan breed. It is beyond question 
that this self-righteous bearing of Jewish leaders had much 
to do with the aversion in which the race came to be held 
in the thought of the Graeco-Roman world. That unfortu¬ 
nate and often unjust opinion is expressed by a number of 
the writers of the empire, like Tacitus, Horace and Livy. 

That men of broader and more appreciative spirit were 
found in the community is not to be doubted. It is proved 
by the books of friendly attitude already mentioned. It is 
indicated by the growing infusion of Persian ideas into 
Jewish thought, such as the Zoroastrian doctrines of angels 
and spirits, both good and evil, and the conception of a 
future life, quite foreign to the Hebrew mind. These sug¬ 
gestions from the religion of Cyrus and Darius may have 

7 “ This multitude that knoweth not the law is accursed,” John 7:49. 
This represented the scholarly and official disdain of the mere common herd of 
uninstructed people, the “ am ha-aretz,” the folk of the land. 


— 234 — 




Jew and Christian 


been the result of direct contact with Persia, or may have 
fallen as seeds into the prepared soil of Jewish life. Certainly 
they appeared only in this and later periods, and even then 
were accepted by only a portion of the intellectual class. 8 

These and other divergences of thought appeared in 
the life of the province. While the majority of the citizen¬ 
ship was probably unaffected by theological controversies 
and party differences, and pursued its way without undue 
disturbance, there were from time to time those who de¬ 
manded liberty from foreign oppressors, or who stirred up 
rebellion against the rulers of the Maccabean line. The 
spirit of Palestine was never wholly quiet. In Roman days 
it was one of the most troublesome provinces in the empire, 
due to the passion for freedom that animated the people, 
particularly those of the Galilean area. In times of oppres¬ 
sion, either by Persia, Syria or Rome, the messianic hope 
flamed in the hearts of impressionable Jews, and would-be 
messiahs were often proclaiming themselves as deliverers. 
Some of these abortive efforts at independence are mentioned 
in the Christian sources. 9 

In the midst of these many exciting movements, politi¬ 
cal, social, industrial and religious, which made the age one 
of ferment in Palestine, there arose a prophet whose person 
and message were destined to have a profound effect upon 
the times, and to inaugurate a far-reaching religious enter¬ 
prise, perhaps the most notable in history. To a certain 
extent the popular agitation of the time was an advantage. 

8 The Sadducees, acknowledging, like the Samaritans, only the Penta¬ 
teuch as authentic scripture, rejected the views mentioned (Cf. Luke 20:27, 375 
Acts 23:8, etc.). 

9 Cf. Acts 5:36, 37; 21:38. See also pp. 264, 265. 


—235— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


The messianic hope animated many minds. Rome’s rule of 
the land was measurably just, but it was militaristic, rigid, 
burdensome and contemptuous. From their proconsular 
headquarters in Caesarea the successive Roman governors 
ruled the country, granting to the sons of Herod the Great 
a nominal authority over the little provinces into which 
Palestine was divided. The ceremonial gatherings at Jeru¬ 
salem, some of which were revivals of Hebrew customs and 
some of more recent origin, were occasions of anxiety to the 
administration, and the procurators usually brought up 
Roman troops to augment the Jerusalem garrison and guard 
against popular uprisings. There was a mood of unrest and 
expectancy among the people. The conflicts of the govern¬ 
ment with political and religious aspirants to leadership had 
been frequent and disturbing, and the party groups in the 
council of elders, or Sanhedrin, held no affection for the 
Roman administration. 

At such a time Jesus or Joshua was born, some five or 
six years before the beginning of the present era, of parents 
named Joseph and Mary. Their home was in Nazareth, a 
town among the hills of Galilee. Tradition placed the birth 
of Jesus at Bethlehem 10 south of Jerusalem, but his boyhood 
and youth were spent in Nazareth, in which place and its 
vicinity he worked as an artisan with his father. Later he 
appears, as the oldest son, to have borne the responsibility 
of the family’s support. There were younger brothers and 

10 The narratives in Matthew, chapts. i and 2, and Luke, chapts. 2 and 3, 
relating to the genealogy and birth of Jesus appear to belong to a different body 
of material from the central Gospel sources, and it has been thought by some 
scholars that the Bethlehem story was an effort to conform the record to the 
passage in Micah (5:2; cf. Matt. 2:1-12). 

—236— 





Jew and Christian 


sisters. The records relating to the life of Jesus are con¬ 
tained in four brief memoirs called the Gospels, and in refer¬ 
ences found in the writings of the apostle Paul. None of 
these documents presents a complete life of Jesus, nor do 
all the sources combined offer sufficient material for a satis¬ 
factory biography. They are rather tracts for the times. 
But they set forth the important facts in the life of Jesus 
with sufficient clearness and force to afford ample basis for 
the Christian message. 11 

Of the boyhood and youth of Jesus in Nazareth little is 
known, though some of the extra-canonical writings under¬ 
took to supply information relating to this period. It is 
probable that he had the usual Jewish schooling in the home 
and the synagogue school. Like other children he accom¬ 
panied his parents to Jerusalem at the times of the yearly 
festivals there, and one incident is related of such a jour¬ 
ney. 12 He was familiar with the scriptures of his people, 
and quoted them frequently in his later teaching. 13 He was 
a loyal Jew, a lover of his people and his country. There is 
no intimation that he ever journeyed to other lands, or came 
in contact with teachers of other religions, though fantastic 
claims to this effect have been advanced in recent years. 14 
He spoke the Aramaic language of his people, and read it 
in the synagogue on at least one occasion, in the popular 
targum or translation. 15 He probably understood Hebrew 

11 Cf. John 20:30, 31; 21:25. 

12 Luke 2:41-51. 

13 He may have committed to memory the entire Old Testament, as 
many Jews of his day and later times have done. Moslems have a title 
(“ hafiz ”) for one who memorizes the entire Koran. 

14 See Goodspeed’s Strange New Gospels for an expose of these fraudu¬ 
lent assertions. 

15 Luke 4:16-20. The Pentateuch was read only from the Hebrew text 

—237— 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


to some extent, and may have had some acquaintance with 
the Hellenistic Greek into which the Old Testament had 
been rendered. But he had no technical training for the 
rabbiship such as was customary for the men of that order . 16 
He lived the life of a normal, well-informed and efficient 
young man in his home city, and therefore on his return 
after an absence his fellow townsmen were surprised that he 
assumed the authority of a teacher . 17 They discovered that 
he was no mere provincial, even though he had not traveled 
abroad. He knew the world of his age, and was sensitive 
to those currents of public interest which came from Egypt, 
from the Orient, from Athens and Rome and crossed the 
plain below his hill town of Nazareth. 

It was inevitable that one familiar with the lore of the 
ancient Hebrew race, acquainted with and proud of the 
story of his own people, the Jews, and sharing as he did their 
aspirations for political independence and a worthful na¬ 
tional career, should be deeply disturbed by the unhappy 
conditions of the time and sympathetic with the apocalyp¬ 
tic hopes which forecast deliverance from the Roman 
yoke. He was likewise interested in the reformation of 
religious and social life and the coming of a new age in 
which the dreams of the prophets of old should come to 
realization. 

Jesus was a conforming Jew, obedient to all the rules of 
the synagogue, and eager to have part in the attainment of 

in the synagogue, but the remainder of the scriptures could be read from the 
vernacular version. 

16 This explains the comment of the Jews in John 7:15. He had never 
pursued a course of study at the university in Jerusalem. 

17 Matt. 13:57. 


-238- 







Jew and Christian 


a better order of life for his community and his nation. 
How was it to be accomplished ? Roman rule was increas¬ 
ingly burdensome. The temple worship was elaborate and 
costly, but apparently without effect upon the mass of the 
people, except to arouse protest regarding the outlay de¬ 
manded for its support and the sordid traffic conducted in 
the temple markets. The Pharisees, the best men of the 
time, many of whom were models of saintliness, insisted that 
the remedy for the current evils lay in strict obedience to the 
Torah, and that if the whole law could be kept with scrupu¬ 
lous care even for a single day, the messianic hope would be 
realized, and the deliverer would come . 18 Many earnest 
souls, despairing of any human help, believed that nothing 
but a manifestation of divine power and wrath could avail, 
a catastrophic event which should bring to a close the pres¬ 
ent evil times. These men looked expectantly for the ap¬ 
pearance of the messenger of God, the hoped-for minister of 
apocalyptic justice and deliverance. 

Views of this character were forcibly expressed by a 
prophet who appeared in the region of the lower Jordan 
valley about the time Jesus reached the age of young man¬ 
hood. His name was John or Johannan, and from his prac¬ 
tice of summoning his hearers to signify their adhesion to 
the reform movement he led by accepting the rite of im¬ 
mersion in the Jordan, he was known as John the Immerser, 
or the Baptist. Tradition asserted that he belonged to a 
priestly family, and even that he was related to Jesus. But 
this may have been due to the desire of the writers of the 

18 The motto of their order as expressed by one of their later leaders, 
Rabbi Sameas, was, “Love work, eschew dominion, and hold aloof from civil 
power.” 


— 239 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


Christian sources to integrate the two movements and rep¬ 
resent John’s work as a preparation for that of Jesus. The 
story of John’s ministry is very fragmentary, and was writ¬ 
ten by followers of Jesus. If there were records from his 
own group, they have perished. Attempts have been made 
to represent him as an Essene, and the austere manner of 
his life lends some color to that view. But this is all that 
can be affirmed. 

His preaching drew great companies of people from all 
sections of Palestine, and his message had all the character¬ 
istics of the apocalyptic spirit of the age — denunciation of 
current evils in church and state, demands for repentance 
and reform among all classes, and announcement of the 
early appearance of a messianic figure, one who should bring 
swift judgment upon that generation, and usher in the day of 
deliverance. Those who took seriously these threats and 
promises were called to align themselves with the new enter¬ 
prise through the symbolic act of baptism. John drew much 
of his inspiration and imagery from the Hebrew seers, and 
his message seemed the revival of the long silent voice of 
prophecy. It is not recorded that he announced himself as 
the promised messenger of God. Indeed our sources dis¬ 
tinctly assert his denial of such an ambition. He said he 
was merely a “voice,” and that the hoped-for leader was 
still to appear. If the story had been told by John’s followers 
it might have made his claims more emphatic, and the tone 
of the Gospels, especially the fourth, is in places that of 
protest against the implied claims of John’s followers in 
behalf of their leader. That the movement started by him 
persisted in a manner independent of the Christian enter- 


—240— 




Jew and Christian 


prise seems clear from later reference , 19 and there are even 
hints that it survived to later centuries. 

That the ministry of Jesus began as the result of contact 
with the work of John seems certain. Attracted by the 
echoes of the mission at the Jordan, Jesus left his home, 
doubtless with others, and joined the audience of the 
preacher from the desert. He came eager and expectant, 
ready to join the movement for a better order. In the 
process of his own initiation something happened which 
presented to him the difficult responsibility of leadership, 
and sent him away into the silence of the hills to‘think 
through the great adventure. It would seem that at that 
time and throughout his ministry he tested the policies which 
presented themselves as popular and promising, and rejected 
them for the austere and sacrificial program which involved 
apparent failure, but alone promised ultimate success. 

Jesus spent something more than three years in a minis¬ 
try of teaching and preaching which took him on journeys 
to various places, chiefly in Galilee, with infrequent visits to 
Jerusalem. He gradually selected from among those who 
followed him a company of men whom he regarded as his 
pupils or disciples, and whom he undertook to train as his 
interpreters to wider regions and later days. He appeared 
to realize that he could not live long in the midst of the 
growing opposition of church and state, and that he could 
not go far. 

There were many features of Jewish life which appealed 
strongly to him and filled him with satisfaction. Among 
them were the love of nature, delight in the open spaces and 

19 Cf. Acts 19:1-7. 

— 24I — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the lives of the creatures of the fields and the air, so often 
the theme of the psalmists and the joy of the people in vil¬ 
lage and countryside; the beauty of family life, domestic 
affection, love of children, devotion to their instruction, and 
the home study of the scriptures; the services of the syna¬ 
gogue, with the readings from the law, the prophets and the 
other books, and the midrashim or discourses of religious 
teachers and others who desired to speak; the services at the 
temple, itself a wonder of art and cost, the shrine of sacred 
memories and stately rites; and the university, housed in 
the same holy structure, whose class-rooms were frequented 
by revered masters of the law and ambitious students. 

But most of all, there was the proud consciousness of a 
religion the purest and loftiest known in history, a body of 
devoted scholars working energetically to multiply and in¬ 
terpret the strangely backward-written scrolls of the holy 
writings, and a multitude of people, who, however oppressed 
they might be by an unjust government and heavy taxation, 
and however shocked they must have been from time to 
time by the spectacle of outrageous tyranny, brutal cruelty 
and calculated lust on the part of Romans and Herods, yet 
maintained a high level of piety, and exhibited on the whole 
blameless and happy lives. Life under the law was the best 
example of modest and wholesome living any nation had 
known. The people were poor, population was crowded, 
particularly in Galilee, the towns were often unsanitary and 
the streets filthy, as they frequently are today in Palestine. 
But these conditions were familiar to Jesus, and he was not 
offended by them. With a deep love of the people, the men 
and women and little children, every one of whom seemed 


— 242 — 




Jew and Christian 


to him of inestimable worth, he thought only of sharing 
with them the new levels of moral and spiritual reality on 
which he lived, and which he felt to be practicable for all. 

He must have been distressed by what he constantly 
observed of the insolence, contemptuousness and oppression 
of Roman power. Yet he was no agitator for revolution. 
He knew that in that direction lay disaster. Therefore he 
never flamed out against the obvious tyrannies and injustices 
of the day, such as slavery, the bribery of courts, the war sys¬ 
tem and other evils of the age. He sowed the seed of the 
kingdom of God, the new social order of love and good will, 
and was content to wait for the harvest. 

But there were evils that were obvious and remediable 
and they drew from him sharp and stinging rebuke. The 
sins he hated and denounced were pride, hypocrisy, self- 
complacency, formalism, traditionalism, the meticulous ob¬ 
servance of rules of external conduct cloaking a selfish and 
unsympathetic heart. And because he found in his daily 
contacts with members of the ruling classes in temple and 
synagogue examples of these disfiguring vices, he denounced 
them, at times with words that must have blistered as they 
fell. There is no evidence that all members of the parties 
in power, the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and scribes, were 
guilty of the sins he reproved, or that he so regarded them. 
But he took note of outstanding examples and used the 
plainest speech, the most mordant terms. These utterances 
of his have set in the tall pillory of just condemnation those 
offenses through all the centuries since his day, whether in 
priest or preacher, leader or layman. On people who were 
social outcasts, like the publican and the harlot, Jesus wasted 


—243 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


no words of condemnation. Society had already dealt with 
them. Rather he tried to encourage them to go and sin no 
more. But for those in real danger, the wealthy, the com¬ 
placent, the cold-hearted and unloving, he had words of 
warning and rebuke, because he trembled for their destiny 
in this and every other world. 

The men whom he thus denounced naturally resented 
his criticism of their lives. Probably just as severe castiga¬ 
tion was visited upon Jesus by those of their own order. The 
business of the rabbi, the preacher, the priest, is to reprove, 
rebuke, exhort. But Jesus was something of an outsider. 
He had not been trained as a rabbi and in his teachings he 
showed indifference to matters which they regarded as of 
prime value. He was a conforming Jew. He observed the 
law as an obedient son of the Torah. But because he insisted 
that the Sabbath was a servant and not a master, that un¬ 
prescribed food was not the most serious of the things which 
defile, that the Hebrew scriptures did not contain the last 
word of revelation and that Moses was not the final au¬ 
thority, they were deeply shocked and offended. Probably 
rightly so. No doubt Jesus counted on their indignation as 
an aid not only in their religious education, but in that of 
all men. It is of little value to utter commonplace and obvi¬ 
ous truths. People concede them and forget them. But 
when men are angered by an unwelcome fact they may go 
away furious, but they think it over. 

It must have saddened Jesus to realize that he could 
not come to terms with the best men of his day except by 
compromise. That subtle appeal to accept the policies of the 
religious leaders of the age and take the more popular road 


— 244— 






Jew and Christian 


to success he had met in recurring assaults from the days of 
the first temptation. But that way lay failure for him. Un¬ 
fortunately it was impossible to separate the men he criticized 
from the groups with which they were connected. Jesus’ 
protests against the formalism, ceremonialism, avarice and 
pride of men in the ecclesiastical ranks easily passed for cen¬ 
sure on the entire Jewish system. Opposition developed. 
Jesus was increasingly a disturber of the peace. A breach 
with the Jewish authorities was unavoidable. Certain it is 
that it occurred. 

We have the story only from Christian sources. It is 
possible that if a representative of Judaism had written an 
account of Jesus’ ministry, a different light might have been 
thrown upon the origins of the Christian movement. In 
our narratives a heavy burden is laid upon the Jews. The 
terms in which their leaders are pictured are often, perhaps 
usually, terms of reproach. The word “Pharisees” is 
almost always employed in a hostile sense . 20 In the fourth 
Gospel the word “ Jew ” means in almost every instance an 
enemy of the cause. One is tempted to wonder whether 
this represents the appreciative and tolerant spirit of Jesus 
or the growing sentiment of resentment growing out of 
later evangelistic efforts. The story of the crucifixion as¬ 
signs the blame to the Jews and passes lightly over the total 
failure of Roman justice in the event. This has been the 
common Christian view, and the basis of tragic persecution 
of Jews through the centuries . 21 

20 Cf. Riddle, Jesus and the Pharisees; Abrahams, Studies in Pharisaism 
and the Gospels; Herford, The Pharisees. 

21 Recall the excited exclamation of Clovis at a sermon on the Crucifixion, 
“Had I been there with my Franks! ” 


— 245 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


In comparing the two movements, Judaism and Chris¬ 
tianity, at the moment of their most intimate contact, it is 
apparent that those features in Judaism against which Jesus 
and his first interpreters reacted with growing disapproval 
were the external and ceremonial rites which seemed to them 
of little worth. It must not be forgotten that thoughtful Jews 
may well have taken the same attitude. But, as in the later 
history of both Judaism and Christianity, there often appears 
a certain deep loyalty to a rite not because of any intrinsic 
value it may possess, but because of its traditional association 
with the divine will. When Jesus commented with disap¬ 
proval on the meticulous tithing of herbs in the gardens, or 
the careful avoidance of food that was tabu, the answer of a 
conforming Jew might well have been, Who shall decide 
what is essential and what is superficial in matters believed 
to be of divine direction ? It was at this point that the two 
groups increasingly parted company. Jesus, holding to the 
principles of the Torah, felt at liberty to disregard practices 
that to the conservative Jewish leaders appeared vital. The 
same cleavage has often emerged in the church in reference 
to biblical criticism, holy orders, the mode of baptism, and 
similar items in the Christian program. Paul faced such 
questions within the circle of early believers. When one 
assumes that Jesus was right and the Jewish leaders were 
wrong in their contrasted views of obedience to the Torah 
he misses the point of the difference. It was the contrast 
between rules believed to be of divine origin and authority, 
and principles that looked beyond rules to their deeper 
values. 

The attitude of Jesus, like that of many of the reformers 
—246— 





Jew and Christian 


in the history of religion, was first one of protest against 
current usages which he felt to be trivial and non-essential, 
however emphatic the rabbinical tradition might be. And 
this protest was based on an appeal to the Hebrew prophets 
who back of the priestly institutes of the later years repre¬ 
sented the basic ethical and spiritual ideals that gave classic 
Israel its authentic message. To that extent Christianity was 
a reformation within the area of Judaism, and was probably 
so regarded by most of those who watched its early progress. 
Its relations to current beliefs and practices were much like 
those of Buddhism to the prevailing Hinduism of the fifth 
and fourth pre-Christian centuries, or of the Protestant move¬ 
ment to the Roman Church. Each was a protest against 
what were conceived to be the formal and superficial ele¬ 
ments in present belief and practice and an appeal to a past 
in which more basic and ideal values were discovered. To 
this extent every reformation is an attempt to restore an 
earlier and presumably more fundamental order. Jesus re¬ 
garded himself as the successor and interpreter of the He¬ 
brew prophets, save that he was dowered with an authority 
which neither Moses nor any other leader of the past 
possessed. He had no ambition to be the founder of a 
new religion. That estate fell to him in virtue of his 
preeminent personality and the fresh and vital program he 
announced. 

In complete contrast with the spirit of official Judaism 
Jesus laid down no rules of conduct. One searches his teach¬ 
ings in vain to find a body of precepts to which conformity 
is demanded. Even his instructions regarding baptism and 
the holy supper were less commands than suggestions re- 


— 247— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


garding symbolic and useful observances. The one con¬ 
stantly repeated injunction was to the practice of love as the 
dominant requirement in the new movement, and in further¬ 
ance of this ideal the urgent direction to carry the good news 
to all men. He announced the central and dominant mo¬ 
tive of his ministry — love — and he trusted his followers to 
work out that ideal in all their conduct. He was himself the 
living example of this principle. Love to God and love to 
all classes of men was the rule and passion of his life. It was 
the heart of his religion, and he was firm in the faith that it 
would solve every problem of human conduct and relations. 

In the midst of the calm and poise of his daily ministry 
there was a certain eager anxiety to inaugurate this pattern 
of life among his friends, and through them to expand it to 
the wider world. He exhibited always an urgent solicitude 
for the welfare of those about him. This was the control- 
ing motive which revealed itself in his sympathy for all 
classes, his works of healing, his interest and skill in personal 
adjustments, his application of spiritual power to the dis¬ 
orders of human life, and his indignation at the evils that 
marred character and disturbed the society of his day. He 
might, like other reformers, have chosen the method of force, 
and inaugurated rebellion against the tyrannies of Rome. 
His disciples expected him to take this course. Their anxious 
question, “ Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom 
to Israel ? ” 22 discloses their belief that when he talked of 
the kingdom of heaven he had in prospect a revolutionary 
effort to regain independence for his people. His repeated 
attempts to correct this error in their minds failed of this 

22 Acts 1:6, 7. 

— 248 — 





Jew and Christian 


purpose , 23 and even the debacle of their hopes on the day of 
the tumultuous entry into Jerusalem did not quench their 
optimism. 

Far different was the “ faith of Jesus ” 24 from this po¬ 
litical ambition of the disciples. The elements embodied in 
that faith, which was first of all the personal religion of 
Jesus, were the unfailing love of the Father and complete 
trust in him; devotion to the scriptures as the product of 
the divine spirit in the life of ancient Israel; and a growing 
conviction that the historic, redemptive task of the Hebrew 
people had failed of achievement through their disobedi¬ 
ence and disappearance from history, and showed no signs 
of accomplishment through current Judaism. Accordingly 
it was his increasing conviction that upon him, the embodi¬ 
ment of the prophetic spirit of the past, lay the responsibility 
for the attainment of the divine program for humanity, that 
his secret of a devoted, sacrificial life of love to the Father 
and to all mankind as his brethren was “ the way ” of salva¬ 
tion, and that those who responded to his message, of what¬ 
ever race or caste, were to be the elect brotherhood, the holy 
company, the blameless family of God. This was no exclu¬ 
sive or partisan enterprise. Jesus asserted that there were 
“ other sheep ” than those in the Jewish fold, and that his 
program embraced all. If he could have met the great souls 
whose names and teachings were revered by distant nations 
in the orient, he would have found in them kindred spirits 
in the adventure of spiritual enlightenment. But he bated no 
jot of his insistence on the holiness, justice and love of God, 
the need of all humanity for the personal and social salvation 

23 Matt. 16:20; 20:20-23; etc. 24 Rev. 14:12. 


— 249 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


he revealed, and his faith in the worth and salvability of 
every human life. 

It is not strange that a character like this divides history 
into two parts. There was in Jesus Christ an authority, a 
completeness of personality and a finality which sets all other 
members of the race in a different group. This is not a point 
to be labored. It is rather the statement of a luminous fact. 
If it is not evident and convincing, it is useless to make it a 
point of controversy. Each one will evaluate the life of the 
Christ according to his own standard, and apparently he 
was not greatly concerned as to what men thought of him. 
His supreme anxiety related to their attitude toward the 
Father and the good way. Into the mystery of Jesus’ own 
nature no one has ever satisfactorily penetrated. The record 
is too brief and too fragmentary to satisfy the student. We 
only know that those who came within the circle of his life 
searched the vocabulary for words to express their wonder 
and their love. It was their experience, and it has been the 
experience of countless others in later centuries, that some¬ 
thing happens in the lives of those who come to terms with 
Jesus Christ which makes it easier to resist temptation, to 
maintain faith in a moral order, to live a sacrificial, service¬ 
able and triumphant life, and to abide in the confidence that 
love and not death has the final word. A transformation of 
this character is worthy to be called “ salvation,” “ redemp¬ 
tion,” “ atonement,” or by any other of the rich and indefin¬ 
able terms by which Jesus’ first friends attempted to describe 
the mystery of his life and death. 

The “ faith of Jesus ” inevitably passed from the sub¬ 
jective area of his own personal religion to the wider one of 


—250 — 




Jew and Christian 


an objective example and authority. It became the faith 
of the new society in him, as lord and savior, the revelation of 
God in terms of human life, the center of a world’s desire. 
His death as the result of ecclesiastical jealousy, mob excite¬ 
ment and Roman incapacity fearful of a possible aspirant 
to revolutionary leadership, dampened for a moment the 
confidence of his friends, but only for a moment. The con¬ 
viction that he had conquered death and was alive forever¬ 
more became, with the fact of his sacrificial death, the basis 
of a growing assurance of the success of his ministry. His 
followers multiplied in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine. 
Limited at first to Jewish circles, the message gradually 
spread to non-Jewish groups, chiefly through the preaching 
of the martyr Stephen and the notable ministries of Paul of 
Tarsus. In Antioch the name “ Christian ” was first heard. 
Missionaries carried the “good news,” as they called it, to 
wider regions. Later tradition affirmed that the apostles 
made distant lands their parishes. By the end of the first 
century of the present era the Christian message had traveled 
to nearly all parts of the Graeco-Roman world, and after 
conflicts with the paganism of the empire it became through 
the conversion of Constantine the official religion. This was 
a doubtful success, as the establishment of a political cultus is 
always likely to be. But at least Christianity was no longer 
an illicit faith, and the days of Roman persecution ceased. 

Meantime Judaism was not greatly affected by the be¬ 
ginnings and early phases of Christianity. The new move¬ 
ment even met a measure of favor in Jerusalem. It was 
viewed as one more of the many reform enterprises, politi¬ 
cal, social, religious, which had taken form in Palestine in 


—251 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


recent years. Most of them had been of brief duration, be¬ 
cause they bore the stamp of sedition, and were soon crushed 
by the government. The movement inaugurated by John 
the Baptist might easily bear this interpretation in Jewish 
minds. In fact this was the view of Josephus regarding it . 25 
On the other hand the Nazarenes, as the friends of Jesus 
were called, could hardly be accused of cherishing any po¬ 
litical ambitions. Jesus had distinctly disclaimed such proj¬ 
ects . 26 It was only by astonishing misuse of his utterances 
that any political ambitions could be charged against him . 27 
His disciples were conforming Jews, who held to all the 
sanctions of the Torah, and were obedient to the prescribed 
rules . 28 They shared the beliefs and practices which gave 
to Judaism its commanding place as an ethical, humane, in¬ 
telligent system in contrast with much of the surrounding 
pagan life. In education, home life, morals and devotion to 
the ideals of monotheism the Jews were by far the most 
exemplary people of the age. This fact accounted for the 
large number of proselytes who turned from the scepticism, 
immorality and levity of much of the prevailing heathenism 
to the more austere and purposeful commitments of Judaism. 

The fact that the followers of Jesus held these convic¬ 
tions regarding God, the scriptures, the temple and the 
daily rules of conduct, in common with the other Jews 
around them, was sufficient reason for the measure of good 
will shown them in the first days of the movement. That 
they added to the essential elements of Judaism their belief 
in the messianic function of one who had been put to death 

25 Ant. XVIII. 5. 2. 27 Matt. 26:61-66; John 2:19-22; 18:33-38. 

26 John 6:15; 18:36, etc. 28 Acts 3:1; etc. 


— 252 — 




Jew and Christian 


as an offender against law and order might well subject 
them to suspicion and even ridicule, but did not ostracise 
them. If their leaders were arrested on occasion, it was less 
because of any serious wrong charged against them than be¬ 
cause of the excitement their preaching caused and the 
crowds that blocked the streets . 29 Like the Salvation Army 
in its first years, they were subject to police repression, not 
because their message was obnoxious, but because they caused 
disturbances in traffic. At the same time their preaching of 
the good news of the kingdom of God, which had much 
of the fervor of messianic expectation, won large numbers of 
converts to their cause, and one reads with some surprise that 
many even of the priests were added to the number . 30 Thus 
far at least there was tolerance and a measure of good will 
on the part of the Jewish community toward the Nazarenes. 
There is no reason to suppose that public opinion regarding 
Jesus differed from that felt toward any of the men who had 
attempted to arouse the people to protest against the evils of 
the time, political, social or religious. Probably his person 
and ministry were not widely known, and under the pres¬ 
sure of the exciting events of the time even the tragedy of 
Calvary soon faded from the public mind. 

That which brought the enterprise to the surprised and 
alarmed attention of the Jewish authorities was the bold chal¬ 
lenge of the evangelist Stephen, to the effect that Moses was 
no longer to be regarded as the source of authority, but 
rather the Nazarene, whom, as he asserted, they had done to 
death in spite of his prophetic character and blameless life. 
In effect this new interpretation of the place and function 

29 Acts 4:1-4; 5:17. 18. 30 Acts 6:7. 


—253— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


of Jesus in the divine program quite displaced Moses and the 
temple from their central and commanding place in the 
Jewish system, and substituted Jesus in their stead . 31 This 
attack upon Jewish traditions opened a breach between the 
two groups, which was widened by the martyr death of 
Stephen, the subsequent persecution of the Nazarenes and 
the conversion of Saul of Tarsus to the new faith. This 
man, who later became the apostle Paul, came from the inner 
circle of Pharisaism to become the champion of aggressive 
Christianity, and the mediator of the gospel to the Graeco- 
Roman world. The universal and radical implications of 
the teachings of Jesus were comprehended only partially by 
the Jerusalem circle of his followers. If left to them the 
new movement might have remained an inoffensive reform 
within the zone of Judaism. In the preaching of Stephen and 
later of Paul it broke from this limitation and became a 
cosmic adventure. 

The breach thus created between Judaism and Chris¬ 
tianity was not healed. The non-Christian Jews resented the 
claims made in behalf of Jesus, and there was division of sen¬ 
timent in the new society itself. Many of the members held 
the opinion that the observance of Jewish rites, like circumci¬ 
sion, sacrifice, fasting and pilgrimage, was an essential part 
of their Christian obligation. The liberals under Paul’s 
leadership held that the legal requirements of Judaism were 
no longer obligatory. The conservatives in the Jerusalem 
group were later outvoted or ignored , 32 though they con¬ 
tinued to be an obstructive force for many years. This sepa¬ 
ration seemed to Paul an unhappy mistake. It was his con- 

31 Acts, chapts. 6, 7. 32 See Acts, chapt. 15; Galatians passim . 


—254— 




Jew and Christian 


viction that Jesus was the most conspicuous and impressive 
gift Judaism had made to the world and it was nothing less 
than tragic that there should be any cleavage between his 
friends and the great body of his people. This came to be 
the accepted Christian view. From the standpoint of the 
early church there was a fatal miscarriage of loyalties in the 
failure of Judaism and the friends of Jesus to find common 
ground. He belonged to them and might well have claimed 
world-wide interpretation at their hands. As one of the later 
writers of the New Testament expressed it, “ He came to 
his own, and they that were his own received him not .” 33 

In the light of centuries of the unhappy results of that 
separation it is not difficult to discern something of its causes. 
From the Jewish angle it was too harsh a reading of the past 
history of Judaism to have its most precious possessions, the 
Torah and the temple, set on a lower level, while the place 
of power was accorded to one of recent origin and laic order, 
however convincing and authoritative his message might be. 
To men of Paul’s type it was a most unhappy mistake that a 
gospel essentially Jewish in its origins, and offering the same 
truths of ethical monotheism that the prophets of Israel had 
proclaimed and that Judaism had interpreted since the times 
of Ezra, should miss the divine chance to carry that truth 
to the whole world. 

The Jews of the diaspora were in every land. Their 
synagogues were the first resort of Christian evangelists. 
The followers of Jesus in the first generation held the ine¬ 
radicable conviction that to the Jews belonged the first 
privileges of the gospel. Only as they declined participation 

33 John i: ii. 

— 255 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


in the cause were non-Jews approached . 34 After the fall of 
Jerusalem in the Roman war, and the close of Jewish history, 
it seemed to these men that with a growing world society 
of this basic character there was no longer need of a nation 
with a merely ethnic message. The age was ready for a uni¬ 
versal faith. Rome had one realm and one ruler, though 
many religions. There ought to be a place for one religion 
prevalent through many realms. That which Judaism pos¬ 
sessed was a body of truths the loftiest and purest the world 
had known, and for a brief period it showed the will to carry 
this religion in a missionary spirit to the world. What it 
lacked was a central and commanding figure, the embodi¬ 
ment of its message and the leader of its divine crusade. On 
any, even the most modest evaluation of the character of 
Jesus, he offered this leadership and this authority. A few 
of his racial group took him seriously, and the widening cir¬ 
cles of his followers proved that his message was adapted to 
all mankind and every age. It is this difference in outlook 
which presents the contrast between the racial interests of 
Judaism and the cosmic concern of Christianity; the marked 
divergence between the intensive and introspective litera¬ 
ture of Judaism through these formative years and the world¬ 
embracing outlook of the Christian sources. It is no dis¬ 
credit to Judaism to affirm that it chose deliberately, after 
its momentary experiment in the area of proselytism, to limit 
its ministries to its own people. Other ethnic groups have 
done the same, and with wholesome results . 35 It is the more 
significant that in our own day liberal Jewish leaders have 

34 Acts 11:19; 13*46; 18:5, 6, etc. 

35 The Parsees in India, the followers of Shinto in Japan, etc. 

— 256 — 




Jew and Christian 


felt the obligation to offer the message of Judaism to the 
wider world. In the measure in which it accepts its re¬ 
sponsibility to bear its testimony to mankind in behalf of 
peace and righteousness it may in some degree fulfill the 
hopes of its early confessors, and justify its age-long survival 
and martyrdom. 


-257- 




IX 

THE END OF THE JEWISH STATE 

The year 63 b.c. in which the Roman general Pompey 
conquered Jerusalem ushered in the period of Roman domi¬ 
nation in Palestine, which led at last to the Jewish-Roman 
war, the destruction of Jerusalem and the downfall of the 
Jewish state. 

From the times of Alexander the Great the near east 
was a liability which the west tried to liquidate. Rome re¬ 
garded itself as the legatee and custodian of Alexander’s east¬ 
ern empire, which theoretically extended from the Euphrates 
to the Indus. Already in the days of Judas Maccabaeus and 
his brother Jonathan appeal was made to the Roman senate 
by these Jewish patriots for assistance against the encroach¬ 
ments of Syria, and the covenants then made bound upon 
the Jewish state the heavy burden of Roman alliance, which 
meant virtually Roman control. From this time onward the 
internal affairs of Palestine were regarded by Roman leaders 
as matters for their direction. When Julius Caesar made his 
expedition into Egypt in days when rival Maccabean princes 
were contending for the Judean throne, Antipater, an Idu- 
mean, or Edomite, secured his favor, was made procurator of 
Judea, and given the rights of Roman citizenship. 1 After 
his death his sons Phasaelus and Herod were appointed by 
Antony as tetrarchs of that province, and after the Parthian 

1 By his wife Cypros, an Arab woman, Antipater had four sons, Pha¬ 
saelus, Herod, Joseph and Pharoras, and a daughter, Salome. 

— 258 — 




The End of the Jewish State 


war waged in the attempt to make Antigonus, the last of the 
Maccabees, king, 2 Herod went to Rome, won the favor of 
Antony and Octavius Caesar (Augustus) and was appointed 
king of Judea. With two Roman legions he conquered 
Jerusalem in 37 b.c. and began his long career of politics and 
building by the construction of the tower of Antonia on the 
site of the fortress Baris built by Hyrcanus north-west of the 
temple, and known as the citadel. 

The period thus begun was preeminently one of Roman 
influence in Palestine. Cities were erected, or rebuilt, in the 
Roman pattern, and given Roman or Herodian names. 3 
Heavy tribute was exacted from an unwilling people to 
finance Herod’s grandiose projects. 4 For these numerous 
and ambitious designs an enormous revenue was needed. 
Herod’s gifts of money to his Roman friends added greatly 
to the burdens borne by his subjects. Some of these gifts 

2 Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, sons of Alexander Jannaeus, were rival 
claimants to the Jewish throne. Each appealed to Pompey for his support. 
The Roman confirmed Hyrcanus in the high priesthood, but stripped him of 
political power, annexed Palestine to the empire, and took Aristobulus to Rome. 
The latter escaped, secured Parthian aid and made a futile effort to obtain the 
kingship. This ended the Maccabean dynasty. 

3 Herod named Antonia for his friend and patron, Antony; Antipatris 
for his father Antipater; Cypros, a citadel at Jericho, he built and named in 
honor of his mother; the three Jerusalem towers in the upper city, Mariamne, 
Phasaelus and Hippicus he named for his wife, his brother and his friend; 
Samaria he rebuilt and renamed Sabaste in honor of Augustus (Sabastus); 
Caesarea, formerly called Strato’s Tower, he renamed in honor of Augustus; one 
of Herod’s sons, Antipas, built Tiberias and named it in honor of the reigning 
Caesar, and another son, Philip, rebuilt Panias and called it Caesarea-Philippi 
a tribute to the emperor and himself. He also erected Julias in Gaulanitis. 
Machaerus (the name of a Roman general), and many other fortresses and 
towns were given names in honor of the Herods or their Roman patrons. 

4 In addition to his extravagant enterprises in his own territory he 
erected costly public buildings in Tripoli, Antioch, Damascus, Byblos, Berytus, 
Tyre, Sidon and Askalon. His ostentatious benefactions reached other regions 
like Rhodes, Lycia, the Ionian cities, Athens, Nicopolis and Pergamum. 


—259— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


were a gesture of friendliness to the Jewish communities in 
the cities thus enriched, but the Jews of Palestine had little 
interest in the pretentious benefactions of one of alien race 
and despotic nature. Even the gorgeous temple was small 
compensation for the cost of the Herodian administration 
with its Roman connections. 

On the death of Herod, an event hailed with a sense of 
relief by every Jew, Archelaus his eldest son succeeded him 
as ethnarch. The other sons, Antipas and Philip, were 
given small territories as tetrarchs. Complaint was made to 
Augustus by deputations of Jews and Samaritans protesting 
against the cruelty and exactions of Archelaus, and in the 
ninth year of his rule he was banished to Gaul. With these 
events the last vestige of freedom passed from the unhappy 
province. Roman procurators were placed over it. 5 The 
emperor Claudius permitted Agrippa, a grandson of Herod, 
to exercise a shadowy authority with the title of king, and a 
second Agrippa, his son, followed him, with a similar com¬ 
plimentary tolerance from Rome. But the government was 
really administered by Roman procurators, and all inde¬ 
pendence vanished. Even the high priests, under the 
later Herods and the procurators, were named by the 

5 The list of procurators is as follows: Pontius Pilate, appointed by Ti¬ 
berius, 25—36; Cuspius Fadus, sent by Claudius, 44-45; Tiberius Alexander, 
a Jew, nephew of Philo, 45-48; Cumanus, 48-52; Felix, 52—60; Porcius Festus, 
60-62; Albanus, 62-64; Gessius Florus, 64-66. Several of these Roman and 
Herodian figures appear in the Gospels and the Acts: Augustus, Matt. 22:17-21; 
Luke 2:2; John 19:12-15; Tiberius, Luke 3:1; Claudius, Acts 11:28; 18:2; Nero, 
Acts 25:12; 26:32; 28:19; 1 Tim. 4:16, 17; Herod the Great, Matt. 2:1-19; Luke 
1:5; Acts 4:27; Archelaus, Matt. 3:22; Herod Antipas, Luke 3:1; 23:5-12; Acts 
12:1-6; 19-23; Herod Philip, Luke 3:1; Herod Agrippa I, Acts 12:1-6; 19:23; 
Herod Agrippa II, Acts 25:13-26:32; Pontius Pilate, Matt. 27:1-26; Luke 23:1-25; 
John 18:29-19:38; Acts 4:27; 1 Tim. 6:13; Felix, Acts 23:24; 24:1-27; Porcius 
Festus, Acts 24:27-26:32. 

— 260 — 





The End of the Jewish State 


rulers, and the breach widened between the Jews and 
their overlords. 

The taxes were farmed out by the government to provin¬ 
cial contractors at the highest bid, and collectors called publi¬ 
cans were employed to bring in the revenue, less in accordance 
with a fixed and equitable levy than on the principle of 
exacting all the traffic would bear. It was not strange that 
these publicans were regarded with hatred by their fellow 
Jews. Meantime the people had no political rights. There 
was neither constitution nor franchise. The administra¬ 
tion of law was more equitable and less capricious under di¬ 
rect Roman rule than under the Herods, but it was a harsh 
and contemptuous rule at best. 6 The influence of Rome 
upon the Jews was profound. The struggle, ethical and 
political, stiffened the fibres of Jewish loyalty. It created the 
hard shell of Jewish exclusiveness, which alone saved the race 
in the tragic days which followed. Rome destroyed the 
Jewish state, but it molded the Jewish race. 

Several unfortunate incidents roused the resentment of 
the Jews against their political masters. In his construction 
of the temple Herod set an eagle, the symbol of Roman 
power, above the gate. Some of the rabbis, furious at this 
pagan desecration of the sanctuary, let themselves down 
from the top of the porch and destroyed the effigy. For this 

6 The haughty and disdainful attitude of the Romans toward the Jews 
is reflected by the Latin historian Tacitus who in his account of this period re¬ 
fers to them in such disrespectful terms as, “ the scum and refuse of other nations, 
“the vilest,” “this execrable nation,” “their manners repugnant to the rest 
of mankind,” “enslaved to superstition” {Hist. V. i—13 passim). The same 
attitude toward the Jews is exhibited by Horace and Juvenal. The reasons for 
this contemptuous sentiment of the Romans toward the Jews lay in their stub¬ 
born and unwavering loyalty to their religion, their law and their traditions in 
contrast with the easy acceptance of Roman ideas by most of the subject nations. 

— 261 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


they were burned alive by Herod’s orders, thus becoming 
martyrs in the regard of the nation. Pilate incurred the hos¬ 
tility of the people by taking Roman ensigns into the temple 
courts. These images had the significance of idols to the 
Jews, and a crowd of them lay prostrate before his quarters 
for five days in protest against the sacrilege, until the offend¬ 
ing images were removed. When Pilate appropriated the 
treasure (corban) of the temple to the construction of an 
aqueduct, a similar indignant opposition was aroused, and a 
number of the people were beaten to death. When Caius 
(Caligula) was proclaimed emperor, he ordered Petronius, 
the governor of Syria, to place his statue in the temple. The 
Jews made earnest supplication to the Roman to desist from 
this outrage. The emperor was furious and ordered the gov¬ 
ernor to enforce his will with the legionaries. Fortunately 
before the matter came to a bloody issue news arrived of the 
murder of Caius. 7 

While these disturbing events were agitating the Jewish 
groups in the capital and the surrounding regions, other 
forces were at work to make inevitable an early and definite 
break with Rome. The appearance of writings of the 
apocalyptic order, laying stress upon an early catastrophic 
deliverance of the Jewish state from its enemies, was increas¬ 
ingly frequent. The books of Daniel and Enoch had set the 
pattern for this type of literature in the days of the Syrian 

7 The list of Roman emperors during the period of the Jewish struggle is 
as follows: Julius Caesar, never actually emperor, but the first of the Julian line, 
whose name became the dynastic title of his successors, as well as of several later 
European ruling houses (cf. Kaisar, Czar, etc.); Octavius (Augustus), 31-14 b.c.; 
Tiberius, 14 B.c-37 a.d.; Caius (Caligula), 37-41 a.d.; Claudius, 41-54; Nero, 
54-69; Galba 69; Otho, 69; Vitellius, 69; Vespasian, 69-79; Titus, 79-81; Domi- 
tian, 81-96; Nerva, 96-98; Trajan, 98-117; Hadrian, 117-138. 

— 262 — 




The End of the Jewish State 


persecution. Now that Rome had become the source of 
trouble, the same order of writing sprang into vogue again. 
Books like the Assumption of Moses, the Ascension of Isaiah, 
the Apocalypses of Esdras, the Apocalypse of Baruch, the 
Testimonies of the Twelve Patriarchs and fresh interpola¬ 
tions in the Sibylline Oracles pointed to deliverance from the 
evils of the present in a miraculous and ideal future soon to 
be realized through the divine interposition. 

Some of these works attempted to call the nation back 
to its more spiritual ideals, and insisted that not in arms but 
in the intervention of God in behalf of his people was de¬ 
liverance to be found. The messianic hope of a free nation 
under a heavenly ruler was soon to be brought to fruition. 
Writers of the Pharisean conviction were unwilling to ac¬ 
cept the Roman solution of their national problem. Dreams 
of a Davidic kingdom to be reestablished in Palestine filled 
the air. The Maccabean rulers, so they felt, had betrayed 
the people into the hands of a foreign master. Independ¬ 
ence must be achieved at all hazards. If, as some thought, 
this was to come through supernatural intervention in the 
affairs of Judea, let it come soon. If it must come as the 
result of a war for freedom, as in Hasmonian days, then it 
were well to win by the sword. These were the writings 
and the arguments which were passing from hand to hand 
and mind to mind in these years of the first century of 
our era. 

A new and energetic party had taken form, the Zealots, 
who regarded the payment of taxes to Rome as disloyal to the 
ideals of Judaism. They openly advocated war against their 
overlords. Led on by such men as Zadduk the Pharisee and 

—263 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Judas the Galilean, they joined the sanctions of religion to 
the practical aims of the earlier Maccabeans in a combina¬ 
tion of apocalyptic hope and patriotic passion. The war 
spirit was rapidly growing in the land. The more conserva¬ 
tive Pharisees were not so fiery. They would have coun¬ 
seled moderation and patience. But the radical leaders of 
the hour, unmindful of the lessons which ought to have 
emerged from the story of other peoples who resisted Roman 
domination, hurried the nation into a war whose outcome 
the wise might have foreseen. It was this combination of 
Jewish loyalty, optimism, courage and fanaticism which led 
to the inevitable catastrophe. Who of the pious could doubt 
that at the moment of crisis the arm of God would be bared 
to deliver his people? 

It was these qualities which rendered the Jews so dif¬ 
ficult to rule. During all the years of Roman control Pales¬ 
tine was classified as an imperial province, which implied 
that it was under the immediate authority of the emperor, 
administered by procurators, while the more tractable areas 
were known as senatorial provinces, and were under the 
jurisdiction of proconsuls. The need for this more direct 
and severe administration lay in the frequent outbreaks of 
revolutionary leaders against the government. The com¬ 
bination of messianic hopes and popular exasperation issued 
in repeated uprisings on the part either of messianic pre¬ 
tenders or of political revolutionaries. 

One of them named Simon in Perea led a force which 
burned the palace in Jericho and committed other depreda¬ 
tions until suppressed. A certain Theudas, a prophetic ad¬ 
venturer, led astray many by promising to conduct them 

—264— 




The End of the Jewish State 


through the Jordan dry-shod. He was disposed of by 
Cuspius Fadus . 8 Judas of Galilee was another of these un¬ 
successful seekers after leadership . 9 There was a so-called 
prophet from Egypt who led some thousands of deluded men 
through the desert to the Mount of Olives for the purpose 
of attacking Jerusalem, and whose followers were soon dis¬ 
persed . 10 In fact there were constant revolts against the 
Roman power in Palestine from the days of Pompey to those 
of the Herods. There were riots, outrages by bandits and 
assassins , 11 and other disturbances during most of these years. 
Bloody contests took place between Galileans and Samari¬ 
tans in the days of Cumanus, as in earlier times, but in gen¬ 
eral the Samaritans sided with the Jews in their struggle 
against Rome. 

Nor were the Jews in other lands exempt from the race 
hatred which Roman officials manifested toward them. In 
Egypt they were very numerous. Alexander the Great and 
Julius Caesar had been friendly to them. An entire quarter 
in Alexandria was occupied by Jews, and they possessed a 
temple at Leontopolis. They had enriched the literature 
of Egypt and the world by translating the Hebrew scrip¬ 
tures into Greek in the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus. But 
on the accession of Caius (Caligula) his demand that his 
image be set up in the synagogues led to riots in which the 
Jewish section of the city was sacked. An embassy was sent 
to Rome to explain the event and to plead for justice. This 
deputation was headed by Philo , 12 the most noted of the 

8 Acts 5:36; Josephus, Ant. V. 11. 6; Case, Jesus, p. 264. 

9 Acts 5:37. 

10 Acts 21:38. 

11 The Sicarii, or “ Knifers,” of whom Josephus writes. 

12 40 A.D. 


— 265 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Jewish leaders, who shared with Ezra the honor of found¬ 
ing Judaism. On this occasion the large Jewish colony in 
Rome seconded the efforts of their compatriots from Judea. 

Roman sentiment regarding Jews varied with localities 
and circumstances. Because of their strict monotheism they 
would be likely to incur the suspicion and disapproval of the 
pagan empire, with its heathen priesthood and its pantheon 
of gods. Yet many Jews enjoyed the favor of the ruling 
classes and even of the imperial circle. Poppaea, the wife of 
Nero, was a Jewess. Drusilla, the wife of Felix, was of the 
same race . 13 Jews were often commercially successful, and 
therefore of great value on occasion. In contrast with the 
Christians, who were generally treated with severity because 
of their refusal to participate in the cult of emperor-worship, 
the Jews, who were equally strict in their beliefs, were toler¬ 
ated in their religious practices. They were of much greater 
importance as citizens because of their wealth and their com¬ 
mercial contacts. 

Yet too frequently they were the objects of persecution 
and mob violence. Acts of cruel injustice were committed 
against them. The emperor Claudius in one of his vindic¬ 
tive moments decreed the banishment of all Jews from 
Rome , 14 and although such a tyrannical measure was diffi¬ 
cult of enforcement, and was soon disregarded, it occa¬ 
sioned great suffering and loss for the time. The Jews were 
not popular. As in later centuries their religious beliefs 
and social customs, their disdain of their gentile neighbors 
and their withdrawal from the usual contacts of the pagan 
world, made them the objects of suspicion and hatred. 

13 Acts 24:24. 14 Acts 18:2. 


-266— 




The End of the Jewish State 

Those who lived in Palestine were found difficult to govern 
by the Roman procurators. Not one of all the seven who 
held that position found his office easy to administer. In¬ 
deed it was the belief of Josephus, the historian of the 
Jewish-Roman war 15 that Gessius Florus, during whose offi¬ 
cial career the war began, deliberately fomented rebellion 
by his barbarous and insulting behavior toward his Jewish 
subjects. 

The first open act of hostility was the attack made by 
Jewish revolutionaries on the Roman fortress of Masada 
near the Dead Sea, whose garrison was surprised and mas¬ 
sacred. Cestius Gallus, the proconsul of Syria, was ordered 
south from Antioch to occupy the region now showing un¬ 
mistakable tokens of complete revolt. A Jewish army was 
rapidly raised, and commanders were chosen, one of whom 
was Josephus. The only city to receive the Roman troops 
advancing to reinforce the legions at Caesarea and in the 

15 Flavius Josephus (37-95 a.d.) a Jewish scholar and soldier who lived 
in Palestine in the years preceding the war with Rome. He made a journey to 
Rome in 64 a.d. in behalf of his people, and was assisted in his mission by the 
empress Poppaea. He was greatly impressed by the power of the empire. He 
was chosen as one of the Jewish generals, and took an active part in the earlier 
stages of the conflict. Later he was made prisoner by the Romans, but was re¬ 
leased by Titus in order to employ his services with the Jews during the siege of 
Jerusalem. In later years he resided at Rome. He was favorable to Roman cul¬ 
ture, and yet loyal to Jewish interests. His written works include the Antiquities 
of the Jews, a work that follows in general the narrative of the Old Testament, 
though with the addition of many, often fanciful, traditions. This work was 
completed about 93 a.d. The Wars of the Jews is the record of the Jewish- 
Roman conflict, in which Josephus himself had a part. It is the chief source for 
the knowledge of this period, though frequently marked by the author’s tendency 
to exaggeration. In both of these works Josephus glorified the Jews while pre¬ 
serving his admiration for Roman arms and authority. A third book, Against 
Apion, is an apologetic work in defense of Jewish laws and customs. He wrote 
in addition an autobiography. Like Philo and other Jewish writers of the early 
Christian centuries he held to the view that all the wisdom of the ancients, par¬ 
ticularly the Greeks, was derived from Moses and the Old Testament. 

— 267 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


scattered fortresses of the land was Sepphoris, the strongest 
city of Galilee, which gladly welcomed the imperial col¬ 
umns. Meantime the emperor Nero, who had always re¬ 
garded his eastern provinces with a superstitious solicitude, 
despatched Vespasian, the ablest of his generals, to assume 
command in the threatened area. The first measures taken 
to subdue the rebellion were moderate and conciliatory. 
Vespasian did not attack Jerusalem, but took outlying cities 
like Jotopata and Gadara, hoping to bring the nation to 
obedience. Cestius Gallus advanced on Jerusalem in a 
threatening gesture, and camped on Mt. Scopus east of the 
city. He could have taken the place without difficulty, but 
instead removed his forces to Beth-horon and Antipatris. In 
the light of later events this lenient attitude toward the 
Jewish capital was regarded as a mistake. Its prompt sub¬ 
jection at this stage of the agitation might have saved many 
months of struggle and a multitude of lives. 

As disorders were still frequent in Egypt between the 
Jews and their enemies, Vespasian ordered the temple of 
Onias at Leontopolis plundered and closed. Thus after the 
continuance of Jewish worship there for nearly 350 years this 
sanctuary in a foreign land came to its end. 16 

The Jews in Jerusalem were in no manner prepared to 
resist the Roman advance, save as they relied on the strength 
of the city walls. But all serious efforts at defense were ren¬ 
dered futile by strife between the Jewish factions within the 
city. One of them rallied under Simon of Gerasa in the 
upper city, and one under John of Gischila in the temple 
area, which was like a fortress for strength. Later in the 


16 Josephus, Wars, VII. io. 4; cf. the reference in Jer. 6:5. 

—268- 





The End of the Jewish State 


siege the inner court of the temple itself became the last 
stronghold of the besieged, held first by the party of a certain 
Eleazar, and later by that of John. 17 The situation was 
rendered more tragic by the fact that multitudes of Jews 
from all sections of the Jewish world had journeyed to Jeru¬ 
salem to attend the annual feast of the Passover. Tacitus 
estimated the number of such pilgrims, including proselytes, 
at 600,000. Josephus says that 256,500 Passover lambs were 
slain in celebrating this feast, which gives some idea of the 
great number of citizens and visitors in the city. 18 

When it became evident that nothing but the destruction 
of Jerusalem could end the rebellion, Vespasian, whom the 
suicide of Nero had recalled to Rome to look after his own 
imperial interests, summoned his son Titus from Egypt to 
complete the task. The latter started instantly, and reached 
Jerusalem with all dispatch. 19 

It will be remembered that in his apocalyptic discourse 
to the disciples shortly before the end of his ministry Jesus 
warned them of the approaching tragedy of Jerusalem, and 
counseled them to escape from the city while there was 
time. 20 Early Christian tradition affirmed that numbers 
heeded this warning and took refuge in Pella, east of the 
Jordan, thereby escaping the catastrophe. But as the Chris¬ 
tian community was as yet almost entirely Jewish, the tragic 

17 Tacitus, History, V. 12. 

18 Perhaps an average of ten people for each lamb would be a fair estimate. 

19 The route of Titus included Nicopolis, thence by ship to Themnis, then 
Tanis, Heracleopolis, Pelusium, the Temple of Casian Jupiter, Astracine, Rhino- 
colura, Raphia, Gaza, Askalon, Jamnia, Joppa, Caesarea; thence through Samaria 
and Gophna, to Gibeah of Saul, 30 furlongs from Jerusalem. He established his 
legions on Mt. Scopus and the Mount of Olives. 

20 Matt. 24:1-28; cf. Rev. 12:14, as a probable reference to the same series 
of events. 


— 269 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


fate of Jerusalem was regarded by the followers of Jesus as 
an event as terrible in its import as the sufferings their own 
brethren endured in the Neronian and later persecutions at 
Rome. 

Early assaults made by Titus upon Jerusalem were re¬ 
pulsed with desperate valor. The hostile parties in the city 
alternately fought each other and joined forces against the 
enemy without. Jewish colonies on the Euphrates were im¬ 
portuned by messengers from Jerusalem to aid the revolt 
against Rome. The walls were strengthened, so that in some 
sections they were of triple strength. The Romans on their 
side set up their huge engines for the hurling of stones, and 
kept up a constant battering of the walls. To provide these 
engines and their barricades they stripped the country of 
trees for many miles around. As the siege went on the sup¬ 
ply of food began to fail, and all the superfluous citizens and 
strangers were expelled. The Romans stopped this effort at 
relief by putting to death, usually by crucifixion, such refu¬ 
gees, and bands of robbers added to the horror of the time 
by robbing and murdering those who escaped the Romans. 
Bodies of Idumeans, who had joined the Jews in their strug¬ 
gle against their common masters, were allowed to depart. 
But to render the escape of Jews impossible Titus constructed 
a wall around the entire city. Josephus states that Titus 
employed him as a messenger to plead with his people to 
surrender, and thus put an end to the siege, but to no pur¬ 
pose. The fate of the Jews was rendered more torturing 
by the fact that though their supplies of corn were at the 
vanishing point, the Romans ostentatiously displayed their 
unlimited stores. The contending Jewish factions now 


—270 — 




The End of the Jewish State 


realized the folly of their partisan struggles, as several large 
store-houses filled with grain had been burned in the inter- 
factional riots earlier in the investment of the city. 

Gradually the Roman lines were pushed nearer, and the 
successive walls were penetrated. The younger Agrippa, 
who with his sister Berenice was in the city, pleaded with 
the citizens not to resist further the unconquerable Romans, 
who had taken Carthage and the strongest cities in the 
world; to be vanquished by whom was no disgrace. It was 
all in vain. The madness of slaughter had infected the 
blood of the besieged. False prophets predicted victory for 
their cause. Portents presaging their deliverance were daily 
reported. Fires broke out in the upper city and at the tower 
of Antonia. Furious fighting took place in the temple 
cloisters and at the gates of the holy house. The temple 
courts were lakes of blood and were strewn with corpses. 
The desire of Titus to save the temple was thwarted by his 
furious soldiery, so long defied by Jewish desperation. The 
temple cloisters and gates were set on fire. 

Fighting with mad fury Jews and Romans cut each 
other down in the sacred precincts of the sanctuary. The 
costly furnishings, the golden vessels, the gates of Corin¬ 
thian bronze, more precious than gold, were carried away 
as plunder or vanished in the ruin. Titus was deeply 
affected by the destruction of the beautiful buildings which 
he had hoped to save. Conflagration ended the story of 
Jewish Jerusalem. The holy city, which had risen on the 
ruins of former capitals and for half a millennium had given 
its message to the world, now went up to heaven, like Elijah 
of old, in a chariot of fire. 


—271 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


Vast quantities of plunder were the prey of the con¬ 
querors. Property of every sort save food was seized, and 
prices went down to half their former level. After the fall 
of the temple and its protecting tower of Antonia, the con¬ 
quest of the upper city was not difficult. This was the latest 
of a long series of devastations which Jerusalem had suf¬ 
fered, chief among which were those inflicted by Shishak, 
Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus Epiphanes, Pompey and Herod. 
This event took place in the year 70 of our era, a thousand 
years after the dedication of the first temple, that of Solo¬ 
mon, on this site, and six hundred years after the comple¬ 
tion of the second temple by Zerubbabel. The Romans 
made thorough work of the destruction. The walls were 
leveled and the buildings not already burned or demolished 
were wrecked. The Herodian towers in the upper city 
were the only exception, and they stand today, mutilated 
but grim witnesses of the havoc of war. 

It is probably no exaggeration to affirm that Jerusalem, 
which has suffered so many destructions, both before and 
since that event, has witnessed more human suffering than 
any other spot on the planet. Tacitus puts the number of 
slain at 600,000, and Josephus estimates that 1,100,000 people 
lost their lives in the siege, and that 97,000 were taken pris¬ 
oners and disposed of as slaves. 21 The trophies saved from 

21 The accounts of Jewish casualties during these bloody years, all the way 
from the reign of Alexander Jannaeus to the fall of Jerusalem and its attendant 
horrors, seem incredible. The pages of Josephus are lurid with the recitals of 
slaughter. Yet allowing for all exaggeration on the part of this annalist, the facts 
are almost unbelievable. The Jews killed in the wars of Jannaeus are placed at not 
less than 50,000. In Pompey’s conquest of Jerusalem, 12,000 lost their lives. 
Herod had a long list of victims, public and private, charged against him, among 
whom were 3000 who protested against the burning of the rabbis in the eagle 
episode at the temple. Roman officials took a heavy toll of Jewish lives: Gabinius, 


— 272 — 




The End of the Jewish State 


the ruin of the temple, such as the table of shew-bread and 
the golden candlesticks, were reserved for Titus’ triumph in 
Rome, and their representations were carved on his arch of 
victory later erected at the end of the Forum in the Roman 
capital. 

With this event the Jewish state came to its end. Titus 
proclaimed a solemn edict banishing all Jews from the holy 
soil, and forbidding any Jew to enter Palestine. Yet struck 
with admiration and pity at the stubborn and heroic defense 
they had made, he asked a group of them what could be 
done for them. Their leader, the venerable Rabbi Johannan 
ben Zakkai, replied, “ Give us Jamnia and its scholars,” and 
the request was granted. In later days Tiberias and Safed 
were also centers of Jewish study. 

The temple was no more, the priesthood and its minis¬ 
tries were ended, the Sanhedrin had disappeared, and the 
Sadducees had been dissolved. The Jewish state was de¬ 
stroyed. But Jewish loyalty to the Torah and devotion to its 

10,000; Varus, 2000 crucified; Cumanus, 10,000; Gessius Florus, 2600, many of 
whom were crucified; Cestius Gallus, 4000. In the campaign of Vespasian 11,600 
were slain at Gerizim, 1000 at Gerasa, 40,000 at Jotopata; 15,000 at Joppa; 
and 10,000 on his way to sail for Rome; he said that in his part of the war 
“ many ten thousands of the Jews ” had lost their lives. Numerous cities taken 
were the scenes of terrible slaughter, the mere numbers running to tragic 
totals: such as Askalon, 2500; Ptolemais, 200*0; Gamala, 4000; Scythopolis, 
13,000; Tarachae, 7700; Caesarea, 20,000; Gischila, 6000; and Joppa, 8400. 
In Josephus’ account one reads repeated references to “ great slaughter,” “ slew 
a vast number,” “ perished by, heaps,” “ multitudes of those slain,” “ no mercy 
shown,” until the mind revolts at the recital, and the marvel grows that any 
Jews survived the war. But the list of those taken prisoners and sold, or sent 
to serve on Roman galleys, or as presents to provincial governors, or reserved 
for death in the arena or for the triumphal procession at Rome runs to an 
astonishing and depressing total. Nor do these pathetic figures include the mul¬ 
titudes who perished of famine. There is but one bright spot in this long story 
of death. Titus is reported to have released 40,000 citizens of Jerusalem to go 
where they might. 


—273— 







The Jew Through the Centuries 


study remained, and has constituted through the years the 
bond of all the widely scattered clans of Judaism. Jewish 
culture did not die out with the overthrow of its institutions. 
The nation was gone, but the law remained, and that loyalty 
which had rallied around the sanctuary with such desperate 
devotion now centered its affection on the sacred Word, and 
turned with passionate affection to its elaboration and inter¬ 
pretation. The remnants of the Pharisees who were per¬ 
mitted to remain in the land settled in Jamnia and at¬ 
tempted to make it the center of Jewish loyalty and learning. 

A new Sanhedrin was organized, no longer a law court 
but an academy, and was gradually recognized by Jews in 
the diaspora. A loyal and successful effort was made to keep 
alive Jewish beliefs and customs under the changed condi¬ 
tions which the shattering blow of Jerusalem’s fall imposed. 
With fresh ardor the transcendental hopes awakened by the 
apocalyptic books were cherished. It was not credible that 
the ideals of Judaism, centering in faith in God and a holy 
life were to prove frustrate. The teachings of the scribes, 
in oral form, had already received formulation. These 
comments upon the law were not written. They were too 
precious to be endangered by commitment to documents. 
But in their verbal pattern they were to serve as the core of 
the Mishna in later days, the heart of the great talmudic 
literature. 

Most of the Jews who survived the fall of Jerusalem and 
were not enslaved, and those who lived in other parts of 
Palestine, now sought refuge in other lands as the result of 
the Roman decree of expulsion from the soil. They fled to 
Egypt, Nubea, Morocco, Arabia, Persia, Babylonia, China, 


-274 — 






The End of the Jewish State 


Germany, Gaul, Spain and Britain. In few of these locali¬ 
ties did they find welcome. In most they met ill-treatment 
and hardship. Naturally they settled in colonies and city 
quarters by themselves, when they were permitted to re¬ 
main at all. Here began the ghetto system of withdrawal 
into precincts where they could find a measure of safety and 
an opportunity for their artisan and mercantile life. Here 
their synagogues rose, and their studies and worship afforded 
intervals of relief from the restraints and oppressions of 
their daily life. No people in history has ever suffered the 
repression and hostility which have been in many periods 
and many lands the lot of the Jews. 

Titus enjoyed to the full the fruits of his conquest of 
Jerusalem. His enthusiastic and devoted soldiery pro¬ 
claimed him emperor while he yet remained in the city, un¬ 
mindful of the fact that his father, Vespasian, reigned in 
Rome. After rewarding his troops from the spoils of Jeru¬ 
salem he departed for Caesarea with his warriors and cap¬ 
tives, taking immense store of booty. He left the tenth 
legion, the “ old guard ” in the days of Caesar, to watch the 
site of the ruined city. In Caesarea he held a series of tri¬ 
umphal shows in honor of his brother Domitian, in which 
Jewish captives to the number of 2500 were put to death in 
fights with beasts or gladiatorial combats, or were burnt in 
the arena. Here Simon, one of the factional leaders in the 
Jerusalem riots, was delivered to him and publicly executed, 
and John, his rival, was imprisoned. Going on to Caesarea- 
Philippi, he held another triumphal celebration, in which 
similar games and executions were carried on, with Jews as 
the victims. This was repeated at Berytus (modern Beirut), 


— 275 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


and on his arrival in Rome he shared with Vespasian and 
Domitian a splendid triumph in which such of the golden 
trophies of the temple as had been saved, and a host of 
Jewish prisoners, graced the procession. These captives 
later shared the usual fate. The Arch of Titus was erected 
in commemoration of the Palestine campaign. 

There were three Herodian fortresses remaining in 
Jewish hands when Titus withdrew from the country — 
Herodeon, Machaerus and Masada. The first was taken by 
the Romans without a prolonged resistance. The second 
was captured only after hard fighting in which 1700 defend¬ 
ers lost their lives, and 3000 Jews in the vicinity were put to 
death. Masada was a stronghold built on a ledge of rock 
above the western shore of the Dead Sea. It was held by 
Eleazar, one of the Zealot leaders who had escaped from 
Jerusalem with a band of followers. They withstood the 
siege until all hope was gone, then killed their wives 
and children, and took their own lives. 22 When the Ro¬ 
mans gained entrance they found only the bodies of the 
dead. 

Even after the horrors of these years the Jewish spirit 
was not wholly subdued. So ruthless had been the Roman 
treatment of the race that the flame of rebellion still burned 
in various sections of the empire. Revolts against the gov¬ 
ernment flared up in different provinces — Egypt, Cyrene, 
Cyprus, Mesopotamia. Liberius Maximus, procurator of 
Judea, had difficulties with the straggling Jewish population 
after most of the Romans had departed. In consequence the 
laws were made increasingly severe. Circumcision was for- 

22 Josephus, Wars, VII. 8. 9. 

— 276 — 





The End of the Jewish State 


bidden. No Jew was permitted to approach the site of 
Jerusalem. 

In the reign of Trajan there was an outbreak of Jews 
in Alexandria against the Roman officials, which was quelled 
in a savage massacre. Even more stringent were the laws 
issued by Hadrian. An edict of his forbade the reading of 
the law and the observance of the Sabbath, as well as the 
circumcision of children. These conditions were deemed 
intolerable by the Jewish leaders. Their most precious rites 
were denied them. The result was a fresh revolt in Pales¬ 
tine, a desperate and determined effort to regain a measure 
of tolerance or to perish. A leader named Joseph bar-Cochba 
(“ Son of the Star ”) was proclaimed messiah by Rabbi 
Aqiba. Coins were struck in his honor bearing the legend, 
“ Prince of Israel.” In the war that followed (132-135 a.d.) 
Jerusalem, which had begun to rise from its ruins, was again 
destroyed. The remnants of the Jewish forces fled to Bether 
(Bittir), 10 miles west of the city, where the Romans 
under Julius Severus cut them to pieces. The town still 
bears the Arab name of Khurbet el-Yahud (“ruin of the 
Jews ”). 

Hadrian removed all landmarks of Jerusalem, and built 
a new city on the site, which he named Aelia Capitolina. A 
temple to Jupiter was erected on the temple area, and one 
to Isis on the traditional location of the holy sepulchre, while 
an equestrian statue of the emperor was set up near the 
temple. No Jew was allowed to enter the city on pain of 
death, nor indeed to appear within sight of it. Every Jew 
in the empire was assessed two drachmae as a temple tax. 
The very name of Jerusalem was lost for a century. Jamnia, 


— 277 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Tiberias, Sepphoris and Safed alone remained as centers of 
Jewish culture. 

Meantime the city continued to grow under its Roman 
name. The Christians gradually returned from Pella and 
the other east-Jordan localities in which they had sought 
refuge. A bishop was established there, subordinate to the 
see of Caesarea. The old name of Jerusalem was once more 
heard. In the reign of Constantine, due to the conversion 
of the emperor and the pilgrimage of his mother Helena 
to the holy places, several churches were erected — the Anas- 
tasis on the supposed site of the sepulchre, the Martyrion on 
the spot where the three crosses were said to have been 
found, the church of St. Eleona in honor of the empress, on 
Mt. Olivet, and the church of St. Mary at Bethlehem. Chris¬ 
tianity was finding its way out into the further reaches of 
the Graeco-Roman world. But at the same time its sister 
faith — Judaism — was also becoming a world-wide confes¬ 
sion, for as the young Agrippa said to his countrymen dur¬ 
ing the siege of Jerusalem, “ There is no people upon the 
habitable earth which has not some portion of you among 
them.” 23 

23 Josephus, Wars, II. 16. 4. 


-278- 





X 

THE JEW THROUGH THE CENTURIES 

If the experiences of the Jewish people through the years 
of their national struggle with Rome and the destruction of 
their capital were those of martyrdom, hardly less tragic 
have been the succeeding centuries until recent times. The 
treatment they received at the hands of their imperial mas¬ 
ters set the pattern of the hardships they endured through 
contacts with other races and in different areas. In all the 
years of their history they have been an unhappy and per¬ 
secuted race. They have suffered as the result of their abili¬ 
ties as well as their peculiarities. If they had been less force¬ 
ful, aggressive, clever and persistent — less loyal to their law 
and their traditions — they might have escaped the odium 
and the oppression which they have encountered. 

Their dispersion into other lands than Palestine began 
long before the Roman war. They left the country for many 
reasons. It is a small land, and has few of the resources 
which supply the needs of an augmenting population. They 
emigrated to more promising regions, especially to Egypt 
and the further reaches of Africa. They were lured forth 
by the opportunities of trade in the new cities which were 
springing up in many parts of the empire. They enlisted as 
mercenary soldiers in foreign armies. They fled from inva¬ 
sion and from civil conflicts. The survival of the Jews as a 
people after the horrors of the Herodian and the Roman age 


—279 — 


The Jew Through the Centuries 


seems nothing less than a miracle, and such it has often been 
adjudged. But the wide dispersion of this prolific people 
offers a more rational explanation. The great numbers of 
Jews residing in Alexandria, Damascus, Antioch, Ephesus, 
Corinth and Rome, not to mention a score of other cities in 
which they were numerous and influential, in days before the 
great dispersion from desolated Judea, account sufficiently 
for their survival and their importance. 

In many parts of the empire they extended their influ¬ 
ence. By their commercial abilities and success they made 
themselves indispensable to the ruling classes. Their syna¬ 
gogues were scattered widely through the lands. Where 
they had no formal meeting places, they gathered for wor¬ 
ship in prayer assemblies, as at Philippi. 1 These sanctuaries, 
formal or informal, were the centers in which they met on 
the Sabbath and heard the readings from the scriptures, the 
prayers and the midrashim, or sermons; they were also the 
places in which early Christian evangelists made use of their 
opportunity to reach the Jewish population with their mes¬ 
sage. Being Jews themselves, the first gospel preachers 
confined their ministries to their own people. Only when 
controversies and dissensions grew up as the result of this 
preaching, did they turn to the non-Jews. 2 From this time the 
Christians found themselves confronted with Jewish opposi¬ 
tion and persecution. 3 In these conflicts the Jews usually 

1 Acts 16:13. 

2 Acts 18:6. The New Testament records many examples of this syna¬ 
gogue preaching by Christian leaders. 

8 This opposition was not alone from the out-and-out-Jews. It was even 
more energetic on the part of the conservative Jewish Christians who insisted 
on keeping the regulations of the Torah, and were intolerant of the more 
liberal interpretation of the Christian message given by such men as Paul. The 

— 280 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


enjoyed the favorable attitude of Roman officials as being a 
more numerous and important element in the population, 
though both Jews and Christians were consistently non¬ 
conformist in relation to the state idolatry and emperor wor¬ 
ship of Rome. Both were subject to acts of tyranny on ac¬ 
count of their respective faiths — the Jews on occasions such 
as their wholesale expulsion from Italy by Claudius; the 
Christians in the bloody days of persecution by Nero and 
Domitian. 

The widespread dispersion of Jews in the empire occa¬ 
sioned embarrassment to Roman officials when several of 
these scattered colonies made complaint, sometimes armed 
complaint, against the war in Palestine and the spoiling of 
Jerusalem. In Cyprus, for example, the Jews were so numer¬ 
ous and warlike that they rebelled, overturned the local 
government, and slew hundreds in protest against the dras¬ 
tic program of Hadrian in Palestine. In other instances 
Jewish communities voiced to the Judean authorities their 
local grievances, as when the Jews in Ionia complained to 
Herod and Agrippa of official disregard of their rights. The 
constitution of Caracalla (212 a.d.) granted to Jews the right 
of citizenship, but on a distinctly lower plane than that ac¬ 
corded other privileged races. The activities of the rab¬ 
binical schools in Palestine continued, even in the midst of 
an unfriendly environment from which the Jewish popula¬ 
tion had been practically expelled. In the years following 
the unsuccessful revolt of Bar Cochba, Jamnia (Jabne) fell 
into neglect, and Galilee was the scene of most of the scholas- 

Epistle to the Galatians is a commentary on Paul’s attitude toward these 
“ Judaisers.” 

— 28l — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


tic activities. A line of distinguished scholars, with Hillel, a 
Babylonian rabbi as its founder, produced such leaders as 
Gamaliel II and his grandson, Rabbi Prince Judah (135-- 
217 a.d.) who codified the oral law. But the authority of the 
Palestine schools was declining, as new centers of learning 
arose in the east. 

Chief among the regions to which the Jews made their 
way to escape persecution were the lands at the eastern end 
of the fertile crescent, where in ancient days Assyria and 
Babylonia had flourished. Into this newer Babylonia there 
was a decided drift of this people in imperial days. Many 
of those who were compelled to leave Rome and Italy be¬ 
took themselves to this region. There were several reasons 
for this migration. Thither had gone refugees from Sa¬ 
maria when that city fell under Assyrian blows in 721 b.c. 
Remnants of those colonies doubtless remained in that area, 
and may have kept up the traditions of the older Hebrew 
life. Into Babylonia some of the survivors of Nebuchadrez¬ 
zar’s siege of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. had gone, either as forced 
or voluntary expatriates. The Jews of the imperial age 
counted themselves in some measure the heirs and legatees 
of the ancient Hebrew tribes because of their connection 
with Palestine, although they belonged to a later and dif¬ 
ferent racial stock. The bonds which connected any of the 
peoples of the Mesopotamian peninsula with Palestine were 
shared by the Jews of the new migrations. 

Babylonia was also inviting because it was in the more 
remote districts of Roman power. Its perils, whatever they 
might be, were less appalling than those which proximity 
to the capital presented to this persecuted race. Colonies of 

— 282 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Jews, therefore, took form in Babylonia, and some of their 
people turned to the same scholastic pursuits which occupied 
the attention of the scholars of Jamnia, Sepphoris and Ti¬ 
berias. These colonies seem to have enjoyed a large meas¬ 
ure of autonomy. The government of such distant regions 
of the empire had suffered from the blows of Parthian, 
Nabataean and other enemies. 

The Jews, although at times they were subject to perse¬ 
cution even in these lands, enjoyed a measure of liberty 
denied them elsewhere. They still regarded Palestine as 
their rightful home. They called themselves “ exiles.” But 
they organized their institutions on the pattern of perma¬ 
nence, and chose their own officials. The title “ exilarch ” 
was given to the administrative head of the community, thus 
preserving the ideal of an exiled people whose home was 
elsewhere; and a “resh galutha ” or prince of the exiles, 
who claimed descent from the house of David, held the 
moral and religious headship, somewhat after the manner 
of the ancient Hebrew patriarchal organization. By the 
year 215 a.d. important schools had grown up in Babylonia, 
and a new and decided movement of Jews from Palestine 
itself and adjacent countries took place in that direction. 
Academies were established at such centers as Sura, Ne- 
hardea and Pompedita. Through the combined influence of 
the increasing Jewish population in Babylonia and the 
widening reputation of these academies, the real center of 
Judaism during the period from the third to the eleventh 
centuries was Mesopotamia rather than Palestine. These 
rabbinical establishments cooperated to a certain degree with 
the declining academies in Palestine, and the total activity 

— 283 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


of such seats of Jewish learning resulted in a body of teach¬ 
ing which has been the norm and the pride of Judaism 
through the centuries — the Talmud. 

The scholarly interest of both the Palestinian and the 
Babylonian colleges centered in the Torah and its exposi¬ 
tion. This “ Law of Moses,” recognized in modern times as 
coming, not from a single source and a definite period, but 
as the total legal output of Hebrew culture during the 
years when the Hebrew state existed, was treated by the 
scribes as a single and authoritative body of law, mediated 
to Israel in three great moments of disclosure — at Mt. Sinai, 
during the years of desert wandering, and at the Jordan in a 
final rehearsal of the law by Moses. 4 This Torah, with its 
613 commands, became the subject of intensive study on the 
part of the scribes. It was felt that in its classic form it was 
no longer wholly suited to the times. The fourfold duty of 
the scribes was to produce copies of the code, to explain its 
meaning, to elaborate new and protective rules (“ setting a 
hedge about the law ”), and to devise means of modifying its 
restrictions to meet emergencies. 

This body of commentation amounting to more than 
four thousand rules was confined at first to oral instruction, 
being regarded as too sacred to be entrusted to written form. 

4 Modern scholarship, both Jewish and non-Jewish, has generally ac¬ 
cepted the view that the Pentateuch (the “ Five Rolls,” now usually joined 
with the related book of Joshua, and forming the Hexateuch) presents three 
codes of law: 1. A primitive code (“J” and “ E,” Ex. 20-23; 34 ) dating from 
the eighth or seventh century b . c . 2. The Deuteronomic code (Deut. 12-26) 
discovered in the temple in 621 b . c . and probably dating from the reign of 
Manasseh. 3. The Priest Code, embodying the ideals of Ezekiel’s legislation, 
the Law of Holiness (Lev. 17-26), and the later elaborations of priestly torah, 
found in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, and brought by Ezra from the east 
as the basis of his reforming ministry. Cf. Willett, The Bible Through the 
Centuries, chapt. X. 


— 284 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Before 200 a . d . however, Rabbi Judah of Sepphoris compiled 
his “ Mishna ” or “ repetition ” in six volumes. Around the 
Mishna as the embodiment of the Torah thus revised and 
interpreted there grew up through the following generations 
a still larger body of commentation, reflection, theological 
speculation, dietetic tabus, science, folk-lore, legend, proverbs, 
fables, homilies and other interesting material, some im¬ 
portant and some trivial, some noble and inspiring and some 
commonplace. This is known as the Gemara. The two 
works, the Mishna and the Gemara, form the Talmud — 
the “learning” — which with the Hebrew scriptures, the 
Old Testament, forms the basic literature of Judaism. It 
deals with practically every interest of life, religion, philoso¬ 
phy, medicine, art, history, politics. 5 

The Talmud developed in two forms, one in Palestine, 
the other in Babylonia. Of these the Babylonian was the 
larger and more important. The Jerusalem or Palestinian 
Talmud, the foundation of which was the work of Rabbi 
Johannan of Tiberias, who died in 279 a.d., was never com¬ 
pleted. It came to its latest phase in the fourth century of 
our era. The Babylonian Talmud, much more elaborate in 
form and contents, was finished in the sixth century. The 

5 In this manner the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament, was fol¬ 
lowed by three daughter literatures — the New Testament, the Talmud and 
the Koran, just as the Hebrew religion of the classic age was followed by 
three daughter faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Regarding the 
Talmud Rabbi Lewis Browne writes: “All the Talmud was accepted literally. 
From end to end it was universally assumed to be a true and perfect develop¬ 
ment of the commandments which Moses had taught the Hebrews at the Holy 
Mountain of Yahveh. The new rabbis commented on its every line and word, 
striving to make clear its many muddy passages, and only succeeding in mak¬ 
ing them muddier. So they went on, pathetically caressing their hoard of 
laws as a miser caresses his coins. The Talmud was no longer their servant, 
they had become its slaves.” Stranger than Fiction, p. 198, 

— 285 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Mishna was written in a late form of Hebrew, the Gemara 
in Aramaic. 

It was this great work, the Talmud, which established 
the pattern of Judaism. It made of the Jewish people a 
separate and exclusive race. It gave them a confidence in 
laws of conduct, rules of life, minute regulations of behavior, 
which set them off from all other people, and provided them 
with a shell of custom which was at once a protection and a 
barrier. The study and observance of these rules of life be¬ 
came for the scholarly and the pious a duty, a diversion and 
a source of spiritual strength. It kept them apart from all 
others in a multitude of the details of life — food, garments, 
social habits, forms of worship, as well as fundamental con¬ 
victions. It kept constantly in the forefront of their thought 
the belief in their antiquity, their descent from the Hebrew 
stock. It gave them, accordingly, an immense pride in their 
past, in their religion and in their anticipated future. 

It must be borne in mind that the Jew in all ages has 
faced the historic struggle between this sense of exclusiveness 
and superiority, the result of his system of exhaustive atten¬ 
tion to rules of conduct, and on the other hand the tendency 
to a more liberal and tolerant attitude toward life, which 
first and last has carried a multitude of his co-religionists 
away from Judaism into other faiths, or into unbelief. In all 
generations this struggle between rules and principles has 
been present. It was the basic point of divergence between 
the teachings of the rabbis and those of Jesus. There has 
always been danger that the pattern of life laid down by the 
Talmud, if actually applied, tended to stifle freedom, to nar¬ 
row the interests of the community, to promote selfishness 

—286— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


and to create a sense of reserve and exclusiveness which set 
the Jew apart from all others in a world of his own. On the 
other hand no student of history can doubt the enormous in¬ 
fluence of Judaism in stimulating loyalty and devotion to 
an ideal, a sense of satisfaction in the practice of religious 
obligations, and the attainment of inward peace in the midst 
of an unfriendly social order. The Sabbath, the Torah and 
the messianic hope have been to the loyal Jew a solace and a 
refuge. In the days of his severest sufferings from persecu¬ 
tion, his home and his synagogue have offered him a haven 
of peace and happiness in the assurance of his beliefs, and in 
the practice of his holy rites. 

From the beginnings of their dispersion among the 
nations, the Jews have confronted also the problem of con¬ 
tact and assimilation with the rest of the world. In spite of 
all regulations formulated by the synagogue and the schools, 
intermarriages have been numerous. Judaism has set its face 
against them, because they drained away an element in its 
ranks that could not be spared. On the other hand, it broke 
down that sense of racial integrity, which however fallacious 
has always been a source of Jewish pride. Yet as Graetz 
points out 6 marriages between Christians and Jews are a 
commonplace of social history. From the days of Con- 
stantius (339 a.d.), who issued a decree forbidding the mar¬ 
riage of a Christian to a Jewess, the laws of states and the 
councils of the church have prohibited the practice. The 
third and fourth Lateran Councils passed such decrees, and 
forbade Christians from taking service with Jews. Yet all 
such regulations have been of little value. 

6 History of the Jews, Vol. 3, p. 54. 

— 287 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


In keeping with the generally prevailing sentiment of 
unfriendliness toward Jews there grew up the practice of 
compelling them to live in separate sections of cities, which 
gradually acquired the name of ghettos. The “ ghetto ” 
seems to have taken that designation from the fact that the 
section of Venice occupied by them was called Gietto, “ gun 
factory,” from its former use. Such Jewish quarters were 
found in most cities — the Trastavere in Rome, Old Jewry 
in London, etc. By the sixteenth century most Jews were 
forced to live in ghettos. These were usually the least desir¬ 
able parts of cities. They were crowded, the streets were nar¬ 
row and dark, and the danger of filth, fire and fever was 
constant. Naturally in limited areas like these it was diffi¬ 
cult if not impossible to build new houses. They were 
therefore forced to pile story on story, and to live in small 
unhealthy rooms. The ghetto was a refuge and a prison. 
The Jew was locked out and locked in. There was a meas¬ 
ure of security in a compact community with common in¬ 
terests. Set upon in the non-Jewish parts of a city, he might 
be able to gain the covert and mystery of the ghetto and 
hide himself. At the same time the place was subject to at¬ 
tacks from mobs or ruffians intent on plunder, murder or 
outrage. In most centuries the life of the ghetto was one 
of repression, restricted callings and constant danger. In 
most countries Jews were not permitted to hold land, so 
that agriculture was impossible for them. They had no 
chance at the soil. Furthermore it was dangerous to live 
in country districts, away from the measure of protection 
afforded by their kind in the cities. They were forced to 
depend on barter and exchange. Even the usual forms of 


—288 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


commerce were denied them, and they were obliged to 
resort to usury and the slave trade. 

The causes of this attitude toward the Jew on the part 
of his neighbors were various. No doubt the foolish super¬ 
stition regarding his participation in the death of Christ had 
its place in the complex of factors that set him thus apart. 
His Jewish faith and habits were objects of derision to 
people who had no comprehension of his beliefs, experi¬ 
ences and struggles. His industrial and commercial abili¬ 
ties made him disliked by those who were unable to com¬ 
pete with him in skill or cleverness. But perhaps most of all 
his ill-concealed sense of pride and superiority, his con¬ 
sciousness of a scholarship and intelligence possessed by few 
of his non-Jewish contemporaries caused them to hate him 
because they could not enter into his cultural and artisan 
inheritance. Then too it must be understood that the ghetto 
itself helped to form the Jewish character. His fear, his 
evasiveness, his furtive habits, his obsequiousness combined 
with an evident disdain, were all elements in the forming 
of a character which was looked upon both as a mystery and 
a menace. Most of the ungracious traits which set the Jew 
apart from his fellows today are an inheritance from the 
ghetto, and the responsibility for their presence and per¬ 
sistence lies far more with his detractors than with him. 

But Jewish history is replete with examples of men in 
high estate, great scholars, poets, statesmen and ministers of 
empire. Genghis Khan had as his chief adviser the Jew 
Saleyman, Timur the Tatar was dependent on Judah of 
Germany, Haidar Shah had a Jewish vizier, Ferdinand and 
Isabella employed as chancellor the Jew Abarbanel. In mod- 

—289— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


ern days Disraeli a Jew, though in profession a conforming 
Anglican, was prime minister of England, and many Jews 
have held high office in still more recent times. Those Jews 
who like to insist on the Hebraic antiquity of their race, 
point with pride to the traditions regarding Joseph, David, 
Mordecai and Nehemiah. The list of authentic instances in 
which Jews played an honored and important part in history 
is long, as in the case of Isaac, who according to the “ Vita 
Karoli ” was the leading factor in negotiations between 
Charlemagne and Haroun al-Rashid, and who brought an 
elephant to the emperor as a gift from the caliph. It may 
well have been his influence which secured an unusual toler¬ 
ance for the Jews, the only capitalists in Charlemagne’s 
realm in days of anti-Jewish persecution. 

Among the humiliations forced upon Jews in many 
parts of Europe during the middle ages and in later times 
was the wearing of distinctive marks and garments intended 
to add to their discomfort and reproach. Among many 
such were the yellow or saffron hat, the gaberdine, and 
badges of shame on their breasts. In some lands the men 
were compelled to wear green caps and the women green 
veils. This degradation was carried beyond the bounds of 
Europe into the east. No Jew was permitted formerly to 
ride in the streets of Bokhara, even though he might be a 
millionaire. He was compelled to go on foot, wearing 
around him a strand of rough rope in token of slavery. 
Fortunately in most self-respecting lands these disabilities 
have ceased. 

It would be strange if one so mistreated in a world 
dominantly non-Jewish did not react with anger and cruelty 

— 290 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


against his persecutors. Lurid stories are told of Jewish 
vengeance upon Christian insolence and savagery, and doubt¬ 
less all of them may be verified in particular instances. For 
example there were occasions in which Jews joined in cam¬ 
paigns against Christians, as when Chosroes II of Persia took 
Jerusalem and massacred many thousands with Jewish help . 7 
In a like spirit the Samaritans joined the forces of Hadrian in 
their attack on the Jews in Jerusalem. 

By the age of the crusades the Jews were settled in 
most of the important cities of Europe. As already noted, 
the tendency was to forbid them the more honorable types 
of activity, such as agriculture and commerce, and compel 
them to adopt the more questionable occupation of money 
lending. Usury was forbidden by the church, based on the 
Levitical law . 8 On the same principle Jews did not charge 
each other interest, but felt free to deal with non-Jews on 
that plan. The result was that they became the leading 
bankers and money lenders, and were willing to run the 
risk of exaction and plunder for the sake of the profits de¬ 
rived. In many instances high interest was charged, and 

7 Regarding Jewish reaction against Gentile treatment of their people 
Rabbi Lewis Browne writes: “ The Jews became the money lenders of Europe. 
They developed a great shrewdness and cunning in the one and only field of 
opportunity left open to them, and with their shrewdness and cunning they 
developed a certain cruelty and greed. That was natural. The world was 
cruel to them, so when the chance was theirs, they were cruel in return. Their 
high “ overhead ” drove them to become usurers, and they charged all the 
interest on their loans that they could possibly get. There was no other way 
for them to survive. So many borrowers never repaid their loans, that those 
who did had to make up for those who did not. And by shrewdness and cun¬ 
ning, by usury and thrift, the Jews managed to crawl and wriggle their way 
through to wealth. So the Christian world decided that its next task, now 
that the Jew had been robbed of his pride, was to rob him also of his pelf.” — 
Op. cit., p. 229. 

8 Ex. 22:25; Lev. 25:36, 37; Deut. 23:19, 20; Ps. 15:5. 


— 29I — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


their clients were reduced to economic slavery. But they 
were the only resort of the distressed. “ Usury,” which in 
biblical phrase meant merely reasonable payment for the 
“ usage ” of funds, came to denote exorbitant interest 
charges, and the Jew was the usual and necessary factor in 
such transactions. The proportion of Jews who were able 
to lend money was small, but it gave the reputation of hard¬ 
ness and exaction to the race as a whole, and this added to 
their unpopularity. 

The money lenders of the ghettos were often the sources 
from which funds were raised by the crusaders. They were 
the bankers who financed portions of the undertaking. 
Peter the Hermit carried an order from the Jews of France 
to eastern Jews to supply the needs of his expedition. Fami¬ 
lies of crusaders were often compelled to resort to Jews for 
funds to send to their absent lords in the east, or to main¬ 
tain their own households. The ill-will felt toward Jews as 
the result of these relations, and of many other real or 
imaginary grievances, chief of which was the fact that they 
were classed with Moslems, infidels and pagans, led to 
curious and tragic excesses in crusading days. The first 
objects of attack on the part of the companies who started 
eastward to rescue the holy sepulchre from the unbelievers 
were not the Moslems of Palestine but the Jews of Europe. 
In the first crusade the cities along the Rhine were the wit¬ 
nesses of anti-Jewish violence and robbery. In Worms the 
Jews paid Emich, count of Laisingen, a large sum for pro¬ 
tection. As soon as he received the money, he led his men 
to pillage. The synagogues were burned, the Torah dese¬ 
crated, and 800 of the unfortunate people were massacred. 


— 292— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


In Mayance, 1000 lost their lives. Similar outrages were 
perpetrated in the ghettos of Regensburg, Treves and Prague. 

In Cologne a whole company of Jews committed sui¬ 
cide to escape a worse fate at the hands of the cross-bearers. 
At Metz and Spires Jews were cut down by bands of cru¬ 
saders “ to avenge the blood of Christ.” At Altenahr the 
Jews when menaced selected five of their number who put 
to death 300 of their co-religionists to prevent a more sin¬ 
ister tragedy. The Jews of Ratisbon sent Godfrey a present 
of 500 pieces of silver to secure protection. In the second 
crusade, preached by St. Bernard of Clairveaux, massacres 
of Jews took place in Germany in the initial stages of the 
movement. Of St. Bernard himself it was said in extraor¬ 
dinary praise that “ he was kind even to Jews.” The pope 
Innocent III in 1207 called for a crusade against Islam and 
the Jews. In the days of the fourth crusade Jewish homes 
and warehouses were huddled in the dark alleys along 
the Galata shore in Constantinople for greater protection. 
When Godfrey’s knights took Jerusalem the Jews slipped 
furtively through the byways, or fled from the city or 
shared the fate of the slaughtered Moslems. Historians of 
the time speak of “ those eternal scape-goats, the Jews.” In 
those years Jews and serfs were bought, sold and exchanged 
like other property. They were even given as slaves to 
churches by their seigneurs. They were the objects of levy 
and exaction. The tribute laid upon the Jews of Paris paid 
off the loan made by St. Louis for his crusade, the security 
for which was the crown of thorns. 

It will be observed from these sinister facts that by the 
age of the crusades the Jews were widely dispersed through 


—293 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the lands of Europe, and were sufficiently numerous to be 
an important factor in the population, an object of concern 
to the governments, and of suspicion and malice to many of 
their fellow citizens. The story of their experiences in the 
various lands is of interest. Probably the most impressive 
chapter is that which deals with Spain. Jews arrived in 
that peninsula early in the Christian era. Some of them 
appear to have come from Rome after the expulsion of Jews 
from Italy under Claudius. Spain was nearer to a home¬ 
land for them than any other area. They came from many 
directions, and their numbers increased rapidly. From as 
far away as the Jewish colonies in Babylonia they made their 
way, and soon became a significant element in the popula¬ 
tion. A new zeal for Jewish scholarship and institutions 
sprang up there. The traditions of the Jewish schools in 
Palestine and Mesopotamia revived and flourished. Under 
Moorish favor poetry and philosophy found fresh impulse 
among them. Such scholars as Jehudah ha-Levi (1086- 
1141) and Solomon ibn-Gabirol (1021-1056) exerted 
widespread influence. Moses Maimonides, physician and 
talmudist, and others of his order were the centers of in¬ 
creasing circles of literary and scientific interest. 

Under the Gothic and later Christian rulers of the land 
the Jews prospered. With their rapid increase in numbers 
they bade fair to become the major factor in the population, 
and might in a few generations have been dominant not 
only in Spain and Portugal, but across the border in France. 
They gradually won wealth and influence. They achieved 
distinction as teachers, physicians, bankers, merchants and 
diplomats. Literature flourished among them. Cherishing 


—294 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the tradition that they were the descendants of the ancient 
Hebrews, they even made efforts to revive the Hebrew 
language, which had disappeared. Spain thus became a 
new center of Jewish life and culture. One of the results 
of this new development in the peninsula was the growth 
of friendly relations with the Moslems of the north African 
coast. The religious tradition of Spain was Christian. The 
Roman Catholic church was the accepted religious institu¬ 
tion. But Judaism was closer to Islam in its intense mono¬ 
theism than to the church of Rome. Only the straits di¬ 
vided the two populations, and soon the Moslem Arabs were 
being solicited by Spanish Jews to cross the narrow water 
and share with them the opulent tracts of Andalusia. 9 

As early as 709 Jews opened the gates of Spanish cities 
to Tarik and his followers. From that time the arrival of 
Moslems from Morocco and other parts of northern Africa 
was constant. Very soon these Moroccans or Moors, as they 
came to be called, were an important element in the life of 
the land. They brought in the civilization of their co¬ 
religionists of regions further east, and laid the foundation 
of that rich culture which blossomed in the Moorish uni¬ 
versities, art, architecture and military science of later days. 
With all of this the Jews in the country were sympathetic. 
And through this friendship for the Arab invaders they 
awakened the suspicion and resentment of the Spaniards. 
When it was found that Jews were plotting with Moslems 
to bring over fresh bodies of invaders from Africa, and to 
overthrow the Gothic kingdom in the eighth century, alarm 
was felt. In fact it was time for Christian Europe to take 


& Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, p. 485. 

—295— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


stock of its dangers. The Moslems, once on Spanish soil, 
swept on across the Pyrenees and gained possession of all 
southern France. Carcassonne, Arles, Avignon and neigh¬ 
boring territories were taken by them. It was only the battle 
of Tours (735) which saved Europe from Islam. 

Meantime the Jewish population of Spain rapidly in¬ 
creased. Granada was called the “ city of the Jews.” Seville 
was largely Moorish, but with a large Jewish population 
which had its troubles with the Christian element. In the 
thirteenth century the Jewish population amounted to four 
or five millions in a total population of thirty millions, and 
the commercial and political importance of these people was 
far beyond the proportion of their numbers. Many of them 
were wealthy, and lived in great luxury. They often held 
high positions in the state and in the establishments of nobles 
and even of churchmen. The kings of Spain were glad to 
borrow funds from Jews on occasion, as Ferdinand did from 
the rich Jews of Aragon. Many a courtier employed a Jew¬ 
ish physician and astrologer. Alfonso VIII made a Jew 
his treasurer. The archbishop of Toledo had a Jew as his 
secretary. Jews farmed the taxes of some of the Spanish 
cities, after the pattern of ancient Roman provinces. They 
were useful, and at times indispensable, to the rulers in the 
administration of government. Jews were in high favor 
in the Moslem portions of the land. They taught in the 
Arab universities. Philosophy, astrology, medicine and 
mathematics were their specialties. Grammar and poetry 
were among the disciplines they cultivated. It was the 
golden age of Jewish culture and opulence. 

It was inevitable that a people so forceful, ambitious and 

—296— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


useful should become in a measure integrated in the life of 
Spain both by intermarriage and by adoption of Christianity. 
Mixed marriages became common. Many of the ancient 
houses in which pure Spanish blood (“ limpia sangre ”) 
had been the boast, came to have Jewish strains. And since 
the Jews were often conscious of a wealth and culture which 
was superior to that of their Christian contemporaries, they 
frequently exhibited an ostentation and disdain which made 
them, as elsewhere, the objects of envy, hatred and aversion. 
The Jews of Spain were living among a people whom in 
their hearts they despised as less intelligent, and who in turn 
resented their presence as aliens and extortioners. It was 
but a step from this friction between Jews and Christians to 
overt persecution. With the Moors they had at times had 
troubles. There is record of persecution by the Moslems, 
and of the massacre of 4000 Jews in Granada in 1066. But 
in general Jews and Moslems lived amicably. It was the 
growing power of the church, and the combination of re¬ 
ligious and economic differences that led to the tragedies 
which presently wrote the dark chapter of Jewish persecu¬ 
tion into the story of Spain. The Jewish dark ages in that 
land began with the Renaissance. Increasing hardships fell 
to their lot. They were compelled to attend church services 
and listen to the sermons of Christian priests. Their holy 
books were burned in public bonfires. 

To avoid the growing difficulties of their position many 
Jews adopted Christianity either as a sincere expression of 
their changed belief, or as a means of escaping the persecu¬ 
tion which impended. Massacres of Jews took place in 
several centers. They were being expelled from important 


—297 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


cities. From the year 1400 no Jew was allowed to live in 
Barcelona. Other communities showed a like intolerance. 
In their distress many of them turned to the church as to a 
refuge. Their motives need not be scrutinized too closely. 
Numbers of their co-religionists were suffering mob violence 
or official oppression. The church offered them immunity 
from these disabilities. Great numbers accepted the protec¬ 
tion offered. 

In Castile more than 30,000 turned to Christianity, and 
in Aragon 6000 or more. In the whole of Spain not less than 
160,000 were baptized. They were called “ conversos,” or 
“ Marranos,” or “ Moriscos ” (Moorish). 10 They were natu¬ 
rally held in disesteem by the loyal Jews who were willing 
to endure hardship for the sake of their faith, and they were 
suspected of insincerity by the Christians. Yet they came to 
be a powerful company, and attained great influence in 
church and state. Luis de Santangel, Ferdinand’s trusted 
secretary, was a Jewish convert. In Cordoba Queen Isabella’s 
confessor, Fray Hernando de Talavara, Prior of the Con¬ 
vent of Santa Maria, was the grandson of converted Jews. 
Bishop Pablo de Sta. Maria of Burgos was a converted Jew. 
Bishop Juan Arias de Avila of Segovia was the son of Jewish 
parents. Beatriz de Bobadilla, the most intimate friend and 
confident of Queen Isabella, was married to a converted 

10 These names are sufficiently clear, such as “ conversos ” (converted 
Jews), “crypto-Jews ” (those who professed Christianity, but secretly were Jews); 
“Moriscos,” (Moorish, Moslem or suspected Christians). “Maranos” or “Mar¬ 
ranos ” is a name not so easily defined. It has been thought by some to refer to 
the worship of Mary; by others to have its origin in the Aramaic word " Maran ” 
(Lord) as referring to Christ, in such scripture passages as i Cor. 16:22 maran 
atha, “ the Lord cometh,” or marana tha, “ our Lord, come.” It came to have the 
significance of “ accursed,” “ banned.” Whatever its origin, it became the 
usual name for Jews converted to Christianity. 

— 298 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Jew, Andria de Cabrera. Many of the Spanish bishops and 
other clergy were either converted Jews or were of Jewish 
descent. 

It is not strange that the “ old Christians ” should have 
regarded the “ conversos ” with aversion as suspecting their 
sincerity, and the two groups were in constant conflict. The 
converted Jews were charged with mockery of the Christian 
mysteries. “ Death to the Marranos,” was the cry on the 
streets of Cordoba in 1467. In Segovia in 1474, “ secret 
Jews,” or Marranos, were put to death by mob violence. At 
times conflict broke out in the churches. Crypto-Jews at¬ 
tacked the cathedral of Toledo, and the “ old Christians ” 
were compelled to defend themselves. On the other hand 
the converted Jews in places of power often harrassed the 
true Jews with provocative laws and restrictions. The in¬ 
habitants of the “ Judarias ” or Jewish quarters were victims 
of hardships. In 1405 a rule was made that Jews must wear 
red circles on their clothing. In 1412 they were forbidden 
to shave, or to cut their hair round, or to be members of 
several specified trades. 11 

Charges of all kinds were made against the Jews. The 
“ Black Death ” which ravaged Europe for two years, and 
carried off half its population, was charged against the Jews, 
who had, it was reported, “ poisoned the wells.” Mobs set 
upon these unhappy people in various Spanish cities in 
fancied reprisal. In Seville 4000 were killed. Charges of 


11 Walsh, Isabel of Spain, p. 200. Many of them changed their names, 
like their co-religionists in all lands and all centuries, to escape the odium of 
their race. Such names as AI-Mukammas, Ibn-Gabirol, Ibn-Sina, Al-Moravides, 
Al-Mohades, Abrabanel, Maimonides, and many others were either Moorish or 
Spanish names adopted by Jews. Cf. p. 60, n. 44. 


— 299 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


ritual murder at the Passover season were made against 
them, and prolonged judicial hearings were held to con¬ 
sider alleged instances of the sort. 12 

Christianity suffered unaccountably from involvements 
in troubles of this character, and from the ministrations of 
pseudo-priests who disbelieved the doctrines they preached, 
and paralyzed the church’s life by their cynicism and mock¬ 
ery. In some places the conversos were so contemptuous of 
their Christian profession that they openly attended the syna¬ 
gogues and derided the church. The bribing of officials to 
secure protection was practiced both by Jews and conversos. 

Spain’s chief religious and political problems in these 
years were caused by the presence of the Moors, the Jews and 
the Marranos. The nearest approach to a solution was 
found in the establishment of the Inquisition, a judicial and 
ecclesiastical tribunal for the detection and punishment of 
heresy. It was set up in 1480 in the joint reign of Ferdinand 
and Isabella. It was the result of the war hysteria caused 
by the current struggle with the Moors and the fear neurosis 
generated by the presence of the Jews and the conversos. 
Heresy became the most terrifying word in the vocabulary. 
Christianity was powerful in organization, but weak as a 
moral force in the soul of an ignorant and superstitious 
people. The Inquisition was intended to remedy the situa¬ 
tion caused by the Jewish element in the population. And 
yet the out-and-out Jews, although they suffered severely 
from this enginery of persecution, were molested less than 
the relapsed conversos, who seem to have been the special 

12 This was particularly true in a case in La Guardia in the district 
of Toledo, the details of which are given by Walsh, op. cit., p. 350. 

— 3OO — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


objects of vengeance. Men who “ judaized and apostatized ” 
were victims of particular and searching espionage. Thou¬ 
sands of victims were brought to trial, to torture and the 
stake as the result of this fanatical campaign. 

The heart and soul of this effort to extirpate “ heresy ” 
was Isabella, the queen. A woman of great ability and mas¬ 
terful spirit, she brought her husband and their united king¬ 
dom through many serious crises, sometimes by sheer mili¬ 
tary audacity. But she was at heart a fanatic, devoted to the 
church and its rites. It has been well said that to her the 
world was a religious battlefield, and to fight for men’s souls 
through the ministries of the church was her chief ambition. 
The Jews and the Moors represented all the forces which 
had opposed the Christian faith in the past. To her they 
were the embodiment of hostility to the cross. Had not the 
Jews been responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus, the ston¬ 
ing of Stephen, and the harassing of Paul? Had they not 
opposed and oppressed the Christians whenever they were 
strong enough? Had not the Moslems held for centuries 
the holy sepulchre with pagan contempt for its mystery? 
In the mind of this able but bigoted woman there was but 
one answer. The Moors and the Jews must leave the land 
forever. 

In the year 1492 Spain witnessed three events of world 
significance. In that year Granada, the last Moorish strong¬ 
hold, fell, after generations of warfare, and the two mon- 
archs watched with satisfaction the departure of the Moorish 
king Boabdil and his people across the mountains toward 
the straits and Africa. In that year Ferdinand and Isabella 
issued a proclamation commanding all Jews, men, women 


—301 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


and children, to leave the kingdom and never return. And 
in that year Christopher Columbus sailed out from the har¬ 
bor of Lisbon to seek a passage to China, and came back 
with the news of a new world. 

The hand of oppression had been laid more heavily on 
the Jews as the years of the two sovereigns lengthened. A 
war tax was levied on all Jews in 1490 to finance the struggle 
against the Moors. The Jews were expelled from Andalusia 
in 1482 and from Saragossa in i486. Large gifts were made 
by Jews to Ferdinand and Isabella to secure their protection, 
but in vain. The tragedies of the enforced departure of this 
persecuted people were heartbreaking. They suggest more 
recent and equally savage events in the world war. All the 
roads were crowded. All manner of conveyances and beasts 
of burden were employed. The proclamation of expulsion 
forbade the taking of gold or silver, and reports that the 
refugees swallowed their treasure led to nameless massacres 
and mutilations. The Jewish population in Spain in Isa¬ 
bella’s day shrank from five millions to 200,000. And the 
sad part of the story is the fact that this ferocious act of 
expatriation was called “ the new Christian movement.” As 
if the spirit of Jesus could have looked with anything but 
utter grief upon so cruel an injustice toward the people of 
his own race and affection, or toward any people. 

The Jews fled in all directions. Some of them went 
to Portugal, where they were permitted to settle on payment 
of a heavy tax. Some went to Navarre in France. Some 
traveled to the Balkans, others to Saloniki, and still others 
to Turkey, Palestine and Syria. Considerable numbers went 
to Holland, to Italy and to England. The economic loss to 


— 302 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Spain from these enforced migrations was enormous, for 
wherever they went the reputation of Spain as a Christian 
state fell. The Marranos of Holland, Italy and England 
diverted large volumes of trade from the land which they 
had left. 13 Nor did the expulsion of Jews from Spain cease 
with the edicts of Ferdinand and Isabella. It would seem 
unlikely that any considerable number could remain in the 
land after the drastic measures employed for their removal. 
Yet it is recorded that in the reign of Philip III in 1609 a half 
million “ Moricos ” were expelled from the country, en¬ 
tailing great economic loss in its trade. So unfriendly was 
the sentiment of Europe toward these unfortunate people 
that the pope Alexander VI was accused of being kinder to 
them than the Spanish rulers, and was called in derision 
“ the Jew ” and “ the Marrano.” 

In other lands than Spain the Jews were suffering under 
heavy disabilities. Gruesome stories are told of the ruthless 
measures empibyecLby^ the king John of England to extort 
money from wealthy members of the race. The coronation 
of his brother Richard I in 1189 was the occasion of a mas¬ 
sacre of many hundreds of them, and the tactics of John 
were pursued by Richard in raising funds to pay off his debts. 
Jews paid heavy taxes, and gave of their own will large sums 
whenever they were asked on specific occasions. They were 
a thrifty and industrious people. Yet they were always in 
danger of sudden violence, of banishment or even death. 
Gradually, however, their status improved. Spanish con- 
versos, refugees, assisted in the development of trade with 
the Levant, and materially aided England in the war with 

13 Jewish Encyclopedia Vol. XI. p. 501. 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Spain in the days of Mary and the Armada, and in the cam¬ 
paigns of the Netherlands against Philip II. Cromwell in 
1654 recognizing their value to the state revoked the edicts 
excluding them, and they came in greater numbers from 
that time. There were Jews from Spain in Scotland, who 
came to be an integral part of the population of Edinburgh. 
While Shakespeare’s “ Merchant of Venice ” probably repre¬ 
sents a common sentiment in England regarding Jews in 
the reign of Elizabeth, owing to the fact that they were under 
political ban, yet there were few Jews in England to furnish 
examples of any phase of Jewish life, and when Marlowe 
wrote his “ Jew of Malta,” there was probably not a single 
Jew on that island. 

In France there were so many Jews in Languedoc that 
chroniclers spoke of it as “ Judea Secunda.” There were 
periods of persecution there, probably following the example 
of Spain. Jews were ordered out of France in 1182, but in 
1198 the edict was revoked, and they were permitted to 
return. However, pressure was repeatedly brought to bear 
upon them to force their departure, and their complete ex¬ 
pulsion was decreed in 1394. Of course these measures could 
never be completely enforced in any country, and many Jews 
must have remained by reason of their wealth or through 
family connections with people in high position. In spite of 
all advances of civilization, however, a considerable anti- 
Jewish sentiment remains in France. 14 

There was a large Jewish population in Italy in the 

14 This was illustrated in the arrest, trial and imprisonment of Captain 
Alfred Dreyfus of the French army on charge of treason in 1894. A campaign 
for his reinstatement was immediately begun, and in 1906, after a re-examina¬ 
tion of his case by a less prejudiced tribunal, he was completely vindicated. 


— 304 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


middle ages. The trading opportunities of such cities as 
Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Naples lured them from other 
lands. In Rome there was a considerable Jewish colony, in 
spite of various edicts against them from the times of 
Claudius . 15 But the general unfavorable sentiment caused 
them great distress in many places. Farrara was an asylum 
for many Marranos who were pursued by agents of the 
Inquisition. Venice was the scene of humiliations, restric¬ 
tions, flayings and burnings. The Jews were even forbidden 
to lend money. Their synagogues were looted and their 
sacred books burned. There were autos-da-fe held in front 
of the church of St. Mark, in which their books and even 
their rabbis were burned. One of their number wrote of 
these events, “ All the gates of heaven are closed except the 
gate of tears.” They felt that the Messiah must come, their 
only remaining hope. Some of them fled to Farrara, some 
to Genoa, others to Mantua, Milan, or even Cyprus. Many 
changed their names to Italian forms . 16 Some apostatized 
to save their lives and property, and drew down on them- 

15 Crawford writes: “The palace used to face the Ghetto, but that 
is gone, swept away to the very last stone by the Municipality in a fine hygienic 
frenzy, though, in truth, neither plague nor cholera had ever taken hold 
there in the pestilences of old days, when the Christian city was choked 
with the dead it could not bury. There is a great open space there now, where 
thousands of Jews once lived huddled together, crowding and running over 
each other like ants in an anthill, in a state that would have killed any other 
people, persecuted occasionally, but on the whole fairly well treated; indispen¬ 
sable then as now to the spendthrift Christian; confined within their own 
quarter, as formerly in many other cities, by gates closed at dusk and opened at 
sunrise, altogether a busy, filthy, believing, untiring folk that laughed at the 
short descent and high pretensions of a Roman baron, but cringed and crawled 
aside as the great robber strode by in steel. And close by the Ghetto, in all 
that remains of the vast Portico of Octavia, is the little Church of Sant’ Angelo 
in Pescheria where the Jews were once compelled to hear Christian sermons on 
Saturdays.” Op. cit., p. 304. 

16 Examples are Montallo, Marogonato, Luzzalto, Acosta, etc. 

—305— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


selves the curse of their more loyal leaders, who denounced 
“ the execrable shame of baptism.” In 1516 there was a 
decree expelling all Jews from Venice. The leading rabbi 
of a synagogue in Rome begged protection for his people 
from the new pope, Innocent III. There was an annual oc¬ 
casion, Holy Cross Day, on which Jews were forced to at¬ 
tend a Christian service in Rome, and listen to a sermon. 17 
This requirement was not abolished till the pontificate of 
Pius IX. 

In Germany the same hostile spirit prevailed. As in 
ancient Rome, Spain, England and elsewhere, Jews changed 
their names to escape odium, and to this day a large pro¬ 
portion of Jewish names are German. Jews were driven from 
Vienna, Cologne, Wittenberg, Hamburg, Trent, Nurem- 
burg and Magdeburg. Their sacred books were publicly 
burned in the streets of Frankfort and Cologne. Where 
formerly Jewish banking houses in Frankfort and Antwerp 
carried on profitable correspondence with the crusading 
orders in the levant, the spies of the Inquisition hunted them 
out in Antwerp, Lisbon and other cities. In modern times 
the same anti-Jewish spirit has prevailed in many parts of 
Germany. It was fostered in pre-war days by such leaders 
as Bismarck and Treitschke. Anti-Semitic leagues in Berlin 
and Dresden have kept alive the sentiment. 

In Russia as early as the eighth century a tribe of Tatars 
came in from the east, adopted the Jewish faith and estab¬ 
lished a Jewish kingdom. From that time onward Jews 
found in that land a chance to live, and their industry, 

17 See Robert Browning’s satiric comment on this custom in his poem 
“Holy Cross Day.” 

—306— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


thrift and shrewdness won for them success. Presently, 
however, these very qualities gave rise to irritation on the 
part of their less alert and industrious neighbors, and re¬ 
strictive laws were imposed upon them. They were com¬ 
pelled to live in the “ pale,” a ghetto on a larger scale. 
Persecution was rife. Pogroms were organized, in which 
Jews were the victims of systematic attack, plundering, out¬ 
rage and murder. This was carried on in the name of 
Christianity, until the chief festivals of the church became 
seasons of terror to the inhabitants of the pale. To rid them¬ 
selves of the Jew either by conversion, expulsion or murder 
was the effort of an ignorant and superstitious population. 
All the foolish and wicked charges of other lands and other 
ages were revived. The pogroms of 1903-1906 are vividly 
remembered. The names of Kisheneff and Odessa will not 
soon be forgotten. Jews fled from Russia to France, Eng¬ 
land, America, China, Australia and South Africa. 

The change of government in Russia from the Czarist 
regime to the Soviet rule has presented a new set of problems 
to this people. The effort to find in Jewish rural colonies, 
for which they are quite unprepared, a pattern of life is in 
most regards as difficult as their former trouble in finding 
adjustment to the orthodox church. There is no longer 
religious persecution, but there are economic difficulties 
which are even harder to meet. The problem of Jewish life 
in Poland, where by far the larger proportion of Jews in 
the world reside, is of a different order, but is of equal eco¬ 
nomic severity. Roumania, Austria, Hungary and other 
lands have equally grave Jewish problems. 

Formal acts of toleration in favor of Jews have been 


—307 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


passed in several European countries. Such laws were en¬ 
acted in Austria in 1782, in Holland in 1796, and in Prussia 
in 1812. In fact legislation of that character has been adopted 
in most lands except Russia. Such legislative action has 
not however served as a preventive of local intolerance 
where anti-Jewish sentiment is rife. 

There are colonies of Jews in Macedonia, who constitute 
the largest element in the population of Saloniki; in Arabia, 
where their people have lived since the days of Mohammed, 
and where whole tribes of Arabs have adopted Judaism; in 
Persia, where at times they were persecuted by the Zoro- 
astrians; in Bokhara, where they have recently met rough 
treatment from Soviet and Afghan authorities; in India, es¬ 
pecially in Cochin, where there is a group whose ancestors 
were driven from Amsterdam by the Inquisition, and which 
includes white, brown and black Jews in separate quarters; 
in Africa, where from Roman days there have been colonies 
in Tunis, in Morocco (the Maghrebes), in Abyssinia (the 
Falashas), in Ashanti and in West Africa; in Mexico and 
Peru, where martyrs have given their lives for their faith, 
and in the West Indies, where the last Marranos of the great 
Spanish expulsion took refuge. 18 

In the midst of these scattered communities of Jews and 
in times of trouble such as frequently befell them, the mes¬ 
sianic hope has never wholly died out, and at times it has 
flamed brightly. In almost every century some would-be 
Messiah has risen to claim a following. 19 Furthermore the 

18 For much valuable information regarding the wide distribution of 
Jews through the world see Godbey, op. cit., chapts. IX-XIII. 

19 Examples are David Reubini in Portugal in 1626, and Sabbatai Zevi in 
Turkey in 1776. The learned and revered Rabbi Abravanel, with his message, 

— 308 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


hope of a “ return to Palestine ” has animated the souls of 
multitudes of Jews in distress. A saying has been current 
among them, a farewell at parting, H’shanah habda b’ Ye- 
rushalaim (“ next year in Jerusalem ”). 

The language of the Jews has varied with their localities. 
In northern Europe and for the most part in the United 
States, they are of the Askenazim (German) type, and speak 
the Yiddish (Jewish) dialect, a compound of German, Rus¬ 
sian and Spanish, with a slight admixture of Hebrew and 
English, and printed in the Aramaic alphabet which re¬ 
placed the Hebrew. In Spain and the lands to which they 
emigrated thence they are of the Sephardic type (from 
“ Sephared,” Spain) and speak Ladino, a south European 
compound of Spanish and Hebrew. In nearly all lands 
they speak the language of the people around them. 

During all periods of their history the Jews have pro¬ 
duced noted scholars and have added greatly to the store 
of the world’s literature. They aided significantly in the 
preservation and diffusion of knowledge in the days when 
Arabic culture in Spain was the chief hope of civilization. 
From the age of Philo , 20 Jewish scholarship, both in the area 

“ the times are evil, the Messiah has not come,” predicted that event for the 
year 1531. Every feature of adventist messianism may be found in the history of 
Judaism. Cf. A. H. Silver, Messianic Hope in Jewish History. 

20 The celebrated Jewish philosopher of Alexandria (20 B.C.-54 a.d.) 
who was the founder of the neo-Platonic and allegorical school of Judaism, 
and sought to interpret the Jewish faith in terms intelligible and acceptable to 
the Greek thought of his age. In the year 40 a.d. he headed a deputation of 
Jews to Rome to intercede with the emperor Gaius (Caligula) in behalf of his 
oppressed fellow religionists. In his teachings and writings he affirmed the 
absolute authority of the Pentateuch, but held that many of its utterances, which 
were the cause of criticism and even of ridicule on the part of non-Jews, were 
to be interpreted in an allegorical or figurative sense. The later cabalistic school 
of Jewish thought, which was influential in the middle ages, derived from him 
its first suggestions. 


— 309 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


of biblical lore and in the wider fields of science and phi¬ 
losophy, was active and serviceable. It produced notable 
men in the spheres of history and theology. Some of them 
have been named previously. Solomon ibn-Gabirol (1020- 
1070), called Avecebron, wrought in the favorable atmos¬ 
phere of Spain in that age in the interpretation of Greek 
philosophy to western Europe. He was called the “ Living 
Fountain of Knowledge,” turning the Greek sources of phi¬ 
losophy into the Latin of the scholastic world. The Chris¬ 
tian authorities of the middle ages were indebted to this 
order of writings, as to Philo and Plato, for some of their 
philosophical and theological ideas. 

Rashi 21 (1040-1105) lived in France and produced his 
famous commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud. His 
work the “ Zohar ” helped to form the traditions of the 
mystical Jewish schools, and his writings elicited the ap¬ 
proval of such rulers as Alphonso the Wise of Castile and 
Robert of Anjou. Jehudah ha-Levi (1086-1141) known as 
“ Al-Khazari,” produced a widely known Arabic work 
on Judaism. Moses ben-Maimon, generally known as Mai- 
monides (1135-1204), lived in Cordova, Fez and Cairo. He 
was physician to Saladin, and had great influence in his 
court in Cairo and among the Jews in Egypt. His leading 
works were a commentary on the Talmud in which 
he made a valuable rearrangement of its materials, 
and a Guide for the Perplexed, one of the most notable 
Jewish writings of the middle ages. Through his varied 
scholarship he enriched many fields of learning, and 

21 He received his designation from the leading letters of his name, 
ifabbi Sfelomoh /tzchak (Solomon ben-Isaac). 


— 3 10 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


represents the Spanish school of Judaism at its highest 
level. 

Another scholar of the age was Gersonides (1288-1344), 
called the “ Light of the Exile,” who assisted in the trans¬ 
mission of classical literature to his own age. The process 
was often long and devious. Plato and Aristotle, esteemed 
the great authorities of the Greek period, were brought to 
Spain in Latin translations made from Arabic versions, 
based on Syriac texts produced by Nestorian scholars from 
Greek originals. And in some instances these Arabic-Syriac- 
Greek classics were turned into Latin by Jews working 
through Hebrew translations. It was a mixture of Hellenic, 
Arabic and Jewish culture. 

In the thought of Judaism in the thirteenth century the 
Cabala had an important, perhaps the all-important, place. 
It was the mystical interpretation of the Talmud, which de¬ 
rived its impulse from Philo and his successors, but went to 
fantastic lengths in finding recondite meanings in biblical 
names, numbers and symbols. Its use of spells, astrology, 
amulets, magic and incantations formed a bewildering and 
enchanting field for speculation and conjecture. It was 
widely influential in certain schools of Christian lore, and 
many churchmen were interested in it. 

The rabbis were often humble men, who worked at 
their trades and used their leisure time in talmudic and 
philosophical studies. The day of the priest was gone; that 
of the rabbi had come. Other well-known scholars in this 
field were David Kimchi, who taught in the universities of 
Provence; Abraham ibn-Ezra, traveler and scholar, who 
produced a commentary on the scriptures; Elijah Levita, 


-311- 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


who devised the vowel points for the Hebrew text; and 
Johan Reuchlin, who taught Martin Luther his knowledge 
of Hebrew. Through the interest of such men as these, 
some of them Jews and some Christians, the study of He¬ 
brew, which had largely lapsed save in the rabbinical schools, 
was revived as being essential to all students of the Old 
Testament, and Hebrew became a recognized discipline in 
a number of European universities. From that time it has 
not ceased to hold a valid place in theological education, 
although in most Christian schools of theology it is no 
longer a required study. 

A notable and influential work of rules for Jewish ob¬ 
servance called Shulchan Aruch, the “Set-table,” was pro¬ 
duced by Joseph Karo in 1555, and was by many regarded 
as of almost equal authority with the classics of Judaism. 

A Jewish philosopher of world-wide influence was 
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), a grinder of lenses in the 
Hague, who was ostracized by his synagogue for his liberal 
views on philosophy and religion, but is recognized as one 
of the leading philosophers of the seventeenth century. 

Even more illustrious in the story of Judaism is the 
name of Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), who translated 
the Old Testament into German and produced a commen¬ 
tary on the scriptures, which followed Philo’s method of 
rationalizing interpretation. His large personal influence 
did much to lessen the hardships caused by the vicious preju¬ 
dice against Jews in Germany. Mendelssohn was the phi¬ 
losopher whom Lessing pictured in his notable work, “ Na¬ 
than the Wise.” 

There have been accessions to Judaism from various 


— 312 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


sources, and defections from it as well. For example a 
group of Turks, the Kareimenes of the Crimea and of 
Lithuania, embraced Judaism . 22 There were many in¬ 
stances of conversion to Judaism on the part of negro slaves 
in days of the Civil war. There are large synagogues of 
Negro Jews in the Harlem section of New York City. Negro 
Judaism flourished in parts of the West Indies. On the 
other hand Judaism has constantly suffered losses, some of 
which have been mentioned as the result of persecution. 
Constant defections from the synagogue occurred in Europe 
after the Napoleonic wars. Names, faith and customs were 
given up. This was notably true in England and Germany. 
In Berlin it was reported that one third of the Jews re¬ 
nounced their religion, for political, economic or social 
reasons. There is a sect of Jews who adopted Islam, and 
who live in Saloniki. Among the large numbers of Jews 
who live in the United States there have been many de¬ 
partures, to Unitarianism, and to Christian Science. These 
are more largely from the orthodox than from the liberal 
ranks of Judaism. Yet in all periods of its history Judaism, 
even though divided into various types of orthodox and 
liberals, and suffering at times the heaviest losses and the 
severest persecution, has maintained an unwavering testi¬ 
mony to the basic principles of its confession, and exhibited 
to the world a loyalty to the Torah and the synagogue that 
commands the admiration of mankind. 

22 Halide Edib, Turkey Voces West, p. 8. 


—313— 






XI 

THE RISE OF ZIONISM 


There has been no period since the beginnings of Juda¬ 
ism in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra in which Jews have 
not been living in Palestine. In spite of all proscriptive edicts 
made by Romans, Arabs, crusaders and Turks, members of 
that race have remained on the soil. In many instances it 
has been in the face of severe repression and prohibition. 
There was no police power adequate to the complete execu¬ 
tion of any mandate of expulsion. The fact that permission 
was given by Titus for the continuance of a Jewish school 
in Jamnia opened the way for other centers, such as those at 
Sepphoris, Tiberias and Safed and in other parts of the 
country. Jews in small groups or in family units remained 
out of sheer love for the land, or the sentiment of despair in 
the effort to visualize any other home. Usually the attempts 
to rid the country of this people came in spasms of resent¬ 
ment or nationalistic zeal on the part of the controlling na¬ 
tions, and in the intervals the Jewish exiles crept back to 
their former homes, or struck fresh roots into the beloved 
soil. It was never possible actually to banish Judaism from 
Palestine. 

Meantime in Jewish minds both in the holy land and 
elsewhere the tradition continued and strengthened that the 
country had once been the unquestioned possession of the 
Jew, and that in some continuing sense, in spite of other and 


—314— 


The Rise of Zionism 


temporary control, it was his home land. It was not alone 
the fact that during the five centuries from the origin of 
Judaism in 445 b.c. to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. the 
Jew had been the authentic and unquestioned inhabitant of 
the land, in spite of foreign suzerainty; it was equally true 
that with or without warrant he claimed to be the legiti¬ 
mate successor of the ancient Hebrews, and the heir to the 
country in which they dwelt. With increasing persistence 
the Jew has made himself and the world believe that he is 
the lineal descendant of the race that for seven centuries 
from 1200 to 500 b.c. held at first a growing, then a com¬ 
plete, and later a vanishing title to the land. The basis of 
that claim has been examined in previous chapters. But 
without question it has been the accepted tradition of the 
Jew, and with a rather indifferent gesture of assent has been 
admitted by the rest of the world. In fact most Christians 
of the traditional type have found satisfaction in the belief 
that the forecasts of future unity and glory for the Hebrew 
race freely scattered over the pages of the Old Testament — 
forecasts rendered impossible of fulfillment by essential con¬ 
ditions unmet and destructive policies adopted — applied 
equally to the Jew, and were yet to be realized in his return 
to Palestine and the reestablishment of his nationality. This 
is the confident conviction of large numbers of those who 
are concerned with “the signs of the times,” and believe 
that portentous events are at hand, among which is the 
return of the Jews to Palestine. Many passages in the scrip¬ 
tures, both of the Old Testament and the New, seem to them 
to bear this meaning. Here is the point at which Zionism 
faces its first historic test. Waiving entirely the claim to 


— 3*5 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


genealogical continuity with the ancient Hebrew race, it is 
the conviction of most modern biblical scholars that the Old 
Testament contains no anticipations of the restoration of 
Israel to its ancient homeland which can apply to the Jewish 
people and the present age. There are many passages which 
express this confident hope for the future as it took form 
in the thought of the prophets. But that hope was based 
upon conditions which were not fulfilled historically, and 
the possibility of whose fulfillment has passed away. One 
has to stretch the language of prophecy out of all legitimate 
proportions to secure from it any reference to the Jewish oc¬ 
cupation of Palestine or to events in the modern age. 

Under varying conditions, therefore, and from varying 
motives, sometimes merely the desire to remain where they 
were born, or the sentiment of attachment to the land, some¬ 
times with a measure of official tolerance, and sometimes 
in peril of oppression, massacre and outrage, Jews have re¬ 
mained in Palestine, and have gradually come to be recog¬ 
nized as an inevitable and even desirable factor in the popu¬ 
lation. With the exception of those times of ferocious 
invasion or racial uprising which have been all too frequent in 
the history of the country, they have lived in their quarters 
of the various cities and villages, and have carried on their 
modest industries of village life or of agriculture and herd¬ 
ing, such as their economic status permitted. There are no 
reliable estimates available regarding their numbers in the 
different periods. During the years since the crusades the 
dominant population has been of the Arab type brought by 
the inrush of the Moslem invasion and continued under 
Turkish rule. The fact that the Turks had adopted Islam 

— 3 i6 “ 




The Rise of Zionism 


as their faith gave to the Arab population and its Turkish 
official class a semblance of unity, although the Arab has 
never ceased to resent the passing of power from his own to a 
foreign race, even of Moslem belief. He has never ceased to 
hope for the return of the caliphate — the “succession” to 
the Prophet in the headship of the Moslem world — from 
the Turkish sultans to men of his own Arabic blood. 1 

In the midst of this dominant Turko-Arabic element 
the Palestinian Jews have lived for centuries, a politically 
impotent minority — until recent years about one-tenth of 
the total population — but on fairly friendly terms with 
their neighbors, who included many other small racial 
groups. 2 These Jewish dwellers in Palestine have been of 
several different sorts. First, there has been the pensioner 
class — Jews either of the Askenazim type, chiefly from Po¬ 
land, Germany and Russia, speaking Yiddish; or those of 
the Sephardic type, from Spain, Portugal and other Mediter¬ 
ranean lands, and speaking Ladino. These Jews are sup¬ 
ported in large measure by benevolent funds provided by 
their co-religionists in western Europe and America. It is 
the accepted theory that by their devotions at the Wailing 
Wall in Jerusalem they are representing all Jews the world 
over, in commemoration of the Jerusalem that is no more, 
and in hopeful expectation of the city which is yet to be. Of 

1 With the overthrow of the Turkish empire, the deposition of Sultan 
Abdul Mejid and the assumption of power by the dictator, Mustapha Kemal 
Pasha, the caliphate ceased. It is the dream of the various Arab states that at a 
congress to be called in the near future a caliph of authentic Meccan blood 
may be chosen as the real successor to the Prophet. For a brief period Husein, 
the late sheriff of Mecca and “ King of the Arabs ” proclaimed himself caliph. 
But this was hardly more than a temporary gesture. 

2 See p. 34, note. 


—317— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the large amounts spent for relief work in behalf of indigent 
Jews in eastern Europe and the near east in recent years a 
considerable proportion has been devoted to this type of 
Palestinian benevolence. In Jerusalem the pensioner Jews 
live chiefly near the Wailing Wall in the Jewish quarter — 
one of the four quarters into which the walled city is divided, 
the Moslem, the Jewish, the Armenian and the Graeco-Latin. 
The two synagogues, red- and blue-domed respectively, are 
conspicuous objects in this section. These Jews are generally 
distinguished by their peculiar long garment, the gaberdine 
of the middle ages, and their fur head-coverings, survivals of 
days when they were symbols of oppression. Many of them 
wear the characteristic side locks. They are the least impres¬ 
sive members of their race. 3 

The second type of Jews to attract attention in Palestine 
belongs to the agricultural and industrial class, which, before 
the days of Zionism, was located by generous members of 
their race in portions of the land which promised them 
homes and openings for a career, or who came of their own 
accord to secure the opportunities which the land offered. 
Jews were not the first to try such agricultural and economic 
experiments. Palestine has been regarded as a refuge and 

3 There are other settlements of Jews in and near Jerusalem, repre¬ 
senting particular sects, or in some cases localities from which they have come. 
Among them are found a group of Karaites (Karaim), a small sect dating from 
the eighth century, followers of David Karo, who reject the Talmud and hold 
to the Old Testament scriptures alone, most of whom came from the Crimea; 
a small underground synagogue of the Chassidim, of Polish pietistic origin; a 
company of Yemenite Jews, from south Arabia, claiming to be descendants of 
the tribe of Gad. They are dark in color, like the Bedouin, and speak Arabic 
with an admixture of Hebrew. Of still smaller sects there are the Bokharans 
and Georgians from Turkestan, and the Syrian and Baghdad Jews, more like 
the Arabs than others of their faith. The village of Artuf, a short distance 
from Jerusalem, is inhabited by a group of Bulgarian Jews. 

—318— 






The Rise of Zionism 


an opportunity by various companies of people in modern as 
well as ancient days. 4 Naturally the country always at¬ 
tracted the attention of unprovided Jews and those who had 
the ability and inclination to assist them. As far back as the 
middle ages the sultan at Damascus asked the emperor 
Suleiman for the gift of Tiberias and seven villages around 
it as a possession for Jews who were homeless and in dis¬ 
tress. The motive of relief has stirred the thought of many 
resourceful Jews who were troubled by the spectacle of their 
fellow-religionists suffering and unprovided in various parts 
of Europe. Many experiments of the sort have been made. 
Efforts to plant agricultural colonies of Jews in the Argen¬ 
tine, in Mexico and in other parts of the western world have 
been carried on by such philanthropists as Baron Moritz von 
Hirsch, who devoted many millions of dollars to the attempt 
to found a Jewish colony in South America. Circumstances 
however stood in the way of this particular enterprise. But 
it is an example of what many generous-spirited Jews have 
planned in behalf of their people. 

Western Jews, in Europe or America, who have stood in 
need of this order of relief, have been satisfied in a measure to 
try any locality where the adventure might be organized. 
But Jews in eastern lands have kept their eyes steadily 
fixed on Palestine as a refuge from the disabilities under 
which they suffered. It was not strange therefore that at¬ 
tempts at colonization should be made in that land. 

The first notable effort in this direction was made by 

4 Examples are found in the prosperous German Templar colonies lo¬ 
cated near Haifa, in Jerusalem, and in the north of Palestine; the so-called 
American Colony in Jerusalem, founded by Horatio Spafford in 1881, the Oli- 
phant Community at Haifa, etc. 


— 319 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Baron Edmond de Rothschild in 1882. He and his brothers 
had been impressed with the need of help for their suffering 
people in eastern Europe, and had planned to petition the 
sultan of Turkey for permission to settle some of the unpro¬ 
vided Jews as agriculturists in the less resourceful portions 
of Syria. This would release them from the degrading con¬ 
ditions of ghetto life in Poland and Russia. With this pur¬ 
pose in view Lawrence Oliphant went to Palestine to find 
suitable areas for this project, where the presence of immi¬ 
grant Jews would be least likely to arouse opposition from 
non-Jews or the suspicion of the Turkish officials. 5 Through 
his efforts and the generous support of the Rothschilds, a set¬ 
tlement called Rischon le Zion was established near Jaffa 
in 1882, and was supported by the Baron until his death. 
The will of the Baron Moritz de Rothschild provided funds 
for the Jewish Colonization Association, which was intended 
to assist the Jews of eastern Europe in securing homes. Oli¬ 
phant spent many years at Haifa and on Mt. Carmel, and 
wrote interesting descriptions of the region and its people. 6 
Similar philanthropic activities were undertaken by Sir Moses 
Haim Montefiore, who in addition to many other services 
in behalf of his race, founded a Jewish settlement near Beth 
es-Sultan, west of Jerusalem. 

The third class of Jews in Palestine is the commercial 
group, now rapidly increasing in numbers. During recent 
years it has been evident that Palestine is to be one of the 
most interesting and important of tourist regions. As the 

6 Sir Valentine Chirol, In Eastern Lands, chapt. 3. 

6 Haifa, or Life in Modern Palestine; The Land of Gilead with Excur¬ 
sions in the Lebanon; Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant and of Alice 
Oliphant his wife, by Margaret Oliphant. 


— 320 — 




The Rise of Zionism 


holy land of Jews, Christians and Moslems it attracts great 
numbers of visitors — ministers, rabbis, teachers, students 
and travelers of every sort, eager to enjoy the rapidly im¬ 
proved facilities for the understanding of the country, its 
people and its problems. This situation has made strong 
appeal to the commercial ambitions of Jews as well as other 
races. Because of the special interests of the Jew in Pales¬ 
tine the proportion of men of this race who have taken 
advantage of business opportunities has been large. There 
is much to be done in caring for the tourist traffic and other 
types of trade. Hotels, automobile and truck transportation, 
railroad equipment and service, the shipment of Palestine 
products like oranges, olive oil and the hundred other com¬ 
modities of the land, the trade in goods of every sort needed 
by residents and visitors, building materials and labor and 
the many forms of industry that have sprung up in recent 
years, have offered to the alert Jews of Europe and America, 
particularly since the war, opportunities of great variety and 
value for the investment of capital, skill and labor. A new 
city has grown up outside the walls of Jerusalem, where the 
larger portion of the community is now located. Similar 
conditions prevail in other cities like Jaffa, Haifa, Naz¬ 
areth and Bethlehem. And while men of many nationali¬ 
ties have profited by these signs of progress under vastly 
improved governmental conditions, the Jew has probably 
had more than an equal place in the development of 
the land. And this is the case without reference to the 
very great changes and opportunities which Zionism has 
brought. 

The fourth class of Jews in the country, and quite the 


32 1 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


most interesting of all, is the Zionists. While it is true that 
many Jews of the classes already named are sympathetic 
with the Zionist aspirations, and involved more or less in the 
enterprise, yet Zionism deserves to be studied as a phenome¬ 
non unique in character, and sufficiently important apart 
from every other Jewish interest in Palestine. And this state¬ 
ment implies the fact that there are many Jews in Palestine 
belonging to the classes already named who have no in¬ 
terest in Zionism, and some of whom are definitely hostile 
to it. In this they are like those of their race in other parts 
of the world, where Jewish attitudes toward Zionism vary 
from keenest interest and sympathetic cooperation to entire 
indifference or even radical opposition. 

The first movements of a Zionistic order were made in 
Russia, due to the oppression under which Jews were suf¬ 
fering in that land. An organization called Khoveve Zion 
(“ lovers of Zion ”) was projected in 1881, about the period 
of the accession of the czar Alexander III to the Russian 
throne. Its aim was the colonization in Palestine of Jewish 
refugees from Russia and neighboring lands. There were 
similar societies in other countries. For example Mikweh 
Israel, a Jewish agricultural school and settlement, was 
founded by the Alliance Israelite Universalle, a French so¬ 
ciety, in 1870. The movement developed into the Palestine 
Jewish Colonization Association. With the help of the 
Rothschilds several new colonies were planted, including 
Zichon Jacob, southeast of Haifa, named in honor of the 
father of the Rothschilds; Rosh Pinah, between Tiberias and 
Safed; and Rehoboth, south of Zichon Jacob, founded in 
1890. These colonies were occupied by Jews from Roumania. 


— 322— 




The Rise of Zionism 


Considerable land was acquired from the Arabs and other 
owners, and many immigrants came. 

In the meantime interest was aroused in the revival of 
Jewish culture in Palestine by members of the race who were 
not particularly concerned with the plan of colonization. 
Achad Ha’am (who took the name Asher Ginsberg) de¬ 
voted his life to the spread of the Hebrew language, which 
he wrote and spoke as long as he lived. He was distrustful 
of the growing interest in Jewish nationalism, and regarded 
Palestine less as an opportunity for colonization than as a 
“ fixed national spiritual center of Judaism.” Of like mind 
was Ben Yehuda, whose interests were those of a lexicog¬ 
rapher, and who sought to give to the Hebrew language a 
standard modern form. These men and others of like 
mind were often called “ spiritual Zionists.” It was their 
ambition to revive Hebrew culture in Palestine, and restore 
the rules of the Shulchan Aruch of 1564 to their rightful 
place among Jews of the living generation. To such cul¬ 
tural efforts there was much opposition by orthodox Jews, 
who regarded all such activity as secularizing and sac¬ 
rilegious. 

As a result of the organization of the Jewish Coloniza¬ 
tion Association and the promotion of immigration and 
colonization the movement gradually took on a political and 
practical character. This phase was definitely represented 
by the Viennese journalist, Theodore Herzl, who as early as 
i860 was stirred by the anti-Semitic agitation in eastern 
Europe, and desired to facilitate the removal of the perse¬ 
cuted Jews in Russia, Austria and Germany and their settle¬ 
ment in Palestine. The publication of his book The Jewish 


—323 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


State introduced the political and nationalistic phase of the 
enterprise and resulted in the founding of the Zionist or¬ 
ganization in 1897. Herzl was at once hailed as leader, and 
for eight years devoted himself to the propaganda of politi¬ 
cal Judaism and the strengthening of its organizational out- 
reaches. It is not evident from his writings that he was in¬ 
terested in the problem of Palestine’s capacity to become a 
homeland for the many millions of Jews who were in need 
of better economic conditions. It is a fact well known that 
Palestine has never been capable of supporting the natural 
increase of any people who controlled it. 7 It is a small land, 
with limited resources of every sort, pastoral, agricultural or 
mineral. 8 

Enthusiastic Zionists have estimated its capacity at four 
millions of population, under the best conditions of irriga¬ 
tion and development. The High Commissioner, Sir Her¬ 
bert Samuel, a sympathetic official, set the figure at two mil¬ 
lions of population. Ambassador Morganthau thought that 
one million was nearer the mark. Of course no Zionist has 
claimed that Palestine could accommodate the sixteen mil¬ 
lions of Jews in the world today. All that was planned was 
its possession as a homeland by such Jews as were in direst 
need of such opportunities. All the more therefore is the 
Zionist worthy of admiration and encouragement, when he 
deliberately faces these difficulties and manifests his deter¬ 
mination to conquer nature in the realization of his racial 
hope. Nothing less than magnificent patience, courage, toil 
and treasure can avail to bring to fulfillment this cherished 
ideal. The fact that such a large and purposeful body of 

7 Godbey, op. cit„ p. 174. 8 See pp. 28, 32. 


— 324 — 



The Rise of Zionism 


Jews is committed to the enterprise and is willing to sacri¬ 
fice to the extent necessary to bring it to fulfillment compels 
all who look on at the attempt to maintain the attitude of 
impartial if not friendly attention. Considering the fact that 
according to the census completed in November 1931 the 
Jewish population numbers 172,000, and the non-Jewish, 
1,133,154, the problem which Zionism faces is not of small 
dimensions. Undeterred by these or similar considerations, 
if they were even understood, the plan was adopted, and the 
world-wide movement launched with enthusiasm. 

The event which stimulated Zionist imagination to an 
extraordinary degree was the Balfour declaration. In recog¬ 
nition of the large aid rendered by patriotic Jews to the 
British government in its war operations and impressed by 
the evident tokens of Zionist interest in Great Britain, Lord 
Balfour, British foreign minister, in November, 1917, wrote 
to Lord Rothschild that . . . “ His Majesty’s government 
view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national 
home for the Jewish people, and will use their best en¬ 
deavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being 
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may 
prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non- 
Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political 
status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” It is true that 
this declaration was never submitted either to the nation or 
to parliament. But it was accepted at once by the Zionists 
as a pledge that their dreams had at last come true. Perhaps 
it was impossible for even the most astute of their leaders to 
understand all the reasons which led to the declaration 
the distractions of the world war, the gratitude felt for the 


—325 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


generous help which the government had received from 
members of the Jewish race, the placing of one of its dis¬ 
tinguished statesmen in the position of High Commissioner 
to administer the affairs of Palestine under the mandate, 
and other considerations less obvious. But there was no 
doubt regarding the deep satisfaction felt by all Zionists, 
by most Jews throughout the world, and by great numbers 
of Christians, who believed themselves witnesses of the ful¬ 
fillment of the prophecies relating to the return of Israel to 
its ancient inheritance. That multitudes of Jews should 
at once respond to the declaration with preparations for 
immediate departure to Palestine was to be expected. The 
tide of immigration rose at once. In that and other facts 
involved in the movement lay the causes of inevitable mis¬ 
understanding and conflict. Most of these were due less 
to Zionist zeal than to the failure of those responsible for 
national policies to consider all the facts involved, and to 
avoid obligations which are today the patent cause of mis¬ 
understanding and conflict. For there were other and ap¬ 
parently contradictory commitments made with equal offi¬ 
cial approval by the British government, which gave pause 
to the eager Zionist projects. 9 The immediate result of 
Lord Balfour’s announcement was the uniting of political 
and spiritual Zionism and the gradual submersion of the 
latter in the former. 

9 This phase of the subject will be discussed in the following chapter. 
The term “ Zionism ” is derived from the name Zion which was the designation 
of the eastern or temple hill of Jerusalem (Moriah) and was used in a general 
way for the entire city, or even for the sacred community as a whole (2 Sam. 5:7; 
2 Kings 19:31; Pss. 87:5; 102:21; Isa. 4:3; 24:23; Heb. 12:22; 1 Macc. 4:37, 
60, etc. It was not until the time of Constantine and later that the name 
was applied to the western hill or upper city. 

—326— 




The Rise of Zionism 


Perhaps no enterprise in history has been more am¬ 
bitious, or has required more sacrifice and heroism for its 
achievement than the project undertaken by Zionists. It 
contemplates the arrival of a large body of Jewish immi¬ 
grants whose coming shall solve the problems of congestion 
and oppression in the lands of the pale and the ghetto, and 
at the same time supply the man-power needed for the 
agricultural and industrial projects contemplated for Pales¬ 
tine. On the basis of the agricultural colonies already or¬ 
ganized by the older colonization society, some of which, like 
Petach Tikveh, completely failed at first, a large number of 
new colonies, of many different types, have been planted and 
developed. 

The Jewish immigrants to the holy land feel them¬ 
selves commissioned to save the land itself from the waste 
and ruin of centuries. Under Turkish rule, which was 
Moslem but not Arab, the natives were subjected to every 
sort of oppression and misrule. Taxes were levied on every 
spot of arable land and every fruit-bearing tree, until in 
sheer effort of the peasants to escape spoliation the trees that 
did not yield enough to pay the taxes were cut down. It is 
not strange that deforestation has been one of Palestine’s 
curses. War, earthquake, unskilful tillage, the fear of ban¬ 
ditry have conspired to reduce the country to a fraction of 
its possible productiveness. The coming of the British man¬ 
date has brought to an end this reign of plunder and devas¬ 
tation, under which Jews and Arabs alike suffered. 

For the new plans of improvement in all these directions 
great credit is due the Zionists, and their coming has been 
a blessing to the entire population. With the marked re- 


—327— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


leases of opportunity and energy possible under the new 
mandate regime, almost any population should awaken to 
life and hope. But the Zionists by their initiative and even 
more by their funds have opened a new era in the history of 
the land. That they regard this as providential, the answer 
of God to the prayers of generations of their people, and 
the open path to the achievement of their historic mission, 
is both natural and opportune. The redemption of Pales¬ 
tine from the hands of another race, and particularly such 
a race as the Turks, was a consummation devoutly to be 
wished, and the enlistment of Jewish soldiers in the armies 
of the allies was proof of this devotion to what was deemed 
a patriotic cause. 

Just outside of Jaffa where in 1909 there was only a 
stretch of sand, a Zionist city called Tel-Aviv has grown 
up, with all the features of a modern community and with 
a population which at the peak of its growth reached 45,000. 
It is the claim of Zionists that whereas before the world 
war there were forty-five Jewish villages, with a population 
of 10,000, there are now 120 such villages and colonies, with 
a population of 150,000. These colonies are some of them 
of the communal or socialistic type, and some are of the 
older or conservative order. Naturally the Zionists have de¬ 
sired to settle in the lands best suited to agriculture, such 
as the coastal plain, the region of Haifa, the plains of Es- 
draelon and Jezreel, some portions of the Jordan valley, and 
the upper Jordan area from Tiberias to Lake Hulah. The 
land has been bought often at high prices from the Arabs 
and other owners. This has made such transactions as 
desirable to the Moslem possessors as they have been neces- 

—328 — 




The Rise of Zionism 


sary to the Jews. The money for this purpose has in some 
instances been supplied by the colonists themselves, as at 
Nathania. In other instances it was borrowed from the 
Zionist agencies, and the effort is being made to repay the 
loan, as at Daganiah, but as yet with small success. In some 
cases the land was purchased by the American Zionist Com¬ 
monwealth, as at Affulah on the Nazareth railroad. 

All the post-war colonies are operated on the coopera¬ 
tive principle, where the land is worked in common and 
without hired labor (moshve oudim), as at Nahalal, Bal- 
fouria and Tel-adas, or on the pure communal system 
(Koutzah), where everything is owned in common, money 
is not needed, and children belong to the community and 
are kept in the village creche, though they may be returned 
to their parents at times. Such is the situation in communi¬ 
ties like Ein Harod, Kirjath Anabim or “ Dilb,” Tel Joseph, 
etc. The numbers in the colonies vary from 7000 in Petah 
Tikweh or 2000 in Rehoboth to 200 in Balfouria and Mer- 
haria. The yields are oranges, grapefruit, wine, almonds, 
melons, dairy products and tobacco. The standards of living 
as reported by careful observers, appear to be higher in the 
older and more conservative colonies than in those of the 
later and communal type. 

While the effort has been made to secure land suitable 
for agriculture and horticulture yet some of the localities 
are very poor, and hard work is required to obtain returns 
from waste or marshy land. The faith and courage with 
which the Zionists have gone into such enterprises have been 
worthy of admiration. Palestine is a very little country. 
It has a very limited amount of arable land, even under the 


— 329 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


best conditions of irrigation and cultivation. Large areas 
are mere desert. The biblical pictures of the country as a 
“ land flowing with milk and honey ” were drawn by desert 
dwellers, to whom it seemed like the garden of the Lord. 
It is only by hard work that its indifferent or stubborn soil 
can be made to yield a return to the farmer or even the 
herdsman. It demands men and women of real courage and 
the adventurous spirit to carry on an enterprise of this sort. 
The visitor is often struck with the evidences of hardships 
endured, meagreness of equipment and opportunity, and of 
actual seasonal failure; and at the same time with the cour¬ 
age, optimism and idealism of many of the people. The 
Zionist agencies are not always able to assist adequately in 
the support of the colonies, and there is always the question 
as to how continuous and adequate may be the income of 
funds from abroad to carry on the enterprises in view. 

Aside from this very important work of the colonies, 
there are other ambitious projects included in the program 
of Zionism, for which large outlay will be required, and 
from which returns are expected. The mineral resources 
of the Dead Sea are to be developed, with large expectations 
from the salt, potash and bromine available. Much is ex¬ 
pected from the creation of private corporations for the 
development of industries such as the citrus fruit exchange, 
mortgage institutions, engineering and construction com¬ 
panies, credit corporations, etc. The Zionists confidently 
expect a steady and increasing stream of Jewish immigra¬ 
tion, which, although hardly suitable for large agricultural 
projects, may be counted on to swell to sizable proportions 
the urban population, which requires little investment per 


—330“ 





The Rise of Zionism 


capita and little land and water. Raw materials will have 
to be imported, but this is not regarded as a serious problem. 
Such enterprises as the Haifa harbor improvement, the pro¬ 
jected pipe line from the Mosul oil fields, and the fact that 
Palestine is a central distributing point for Egypt, Syria and 
Mesopotamia are regarded as elements of encouragement in 
the economic progress of the country. These confident 
forecasts need to be balanced against other factors in the 
situation, such as the political conditions, the presence and 
disquietude of the large Arab majority in the country, and 
the manifest perplexity of the British government in inter¬ 
preting satisfactorily the Balfour declaration. 10 

Perhaps the most impressive feature of the Jewish re¬ 
vival in Palestine is in the area of education. The rise of 
Zionism brought immediate activity in providing schools 
for the Jewish children already in the land, for those who 
were expected as the result of the anticipated Jewish immi¬ 
gration, and even for the Arab population which it was 
hoped might profit by the progress in educational facilities. 
The work already accomplished is far more extensive than 
any school program undertaken in Palestine in the past. 11 

But the crowning Zionist educational enterprise is the 
Jewish university on Mt. Scopus. 12 The corner stone of the 

10 See the following chapter. 

11 According to the latest reports there are in the country at present 117 
kindergartens, 95 elementary schools, 4 secondary schools, 4 technical schools, 
4 schools for teacher training, several agricultural schools like the one at Moza, 
west of Jerusalem, 3 musical schools, besides theological seminaries at Hebron, 
Safed, Jerusalem and Tiberias. There are 27,000 Jewish children in schools, 
19,000 of them in Zionist institutions. 

12 It bears the name of the Hebrew University, which to those who recog¬ 
nize the distinction between the ancient Hebrews and the Jewish race would 
seem to be a misnomer. But recognizing the eagerness of the Zionists and of 


— 331 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


institution was laid by Chaim Weizmann, one of the con¬ 
spicuous Zionist leaders, just after the close of the Palestine 
campaign, in the presence of General Lord Allenby and 
other distinguished guests. Ten acres of land on Mt. Scopus 
were purchased for the site, and the buildings were begun. 
The first units of the institution were devoted to the medical, 
microbiological and chemical institutes. Much of the money 
for these beginnings was provided by the American Jewish 
Physicians Committee. On April i, 1925, the University, 
hardly more than an embryo at the time, was brought to 
birth with opening ceremonies in which Lord Balfour was 
the chief figure. Since that time new buildings have been 
added, chief of which is the Wolffsohn Memorial Library, 
named in honor of one of the men chiefly concerned in the 
project. The building was dedicated April 14,1931. Others 
are the Institute of Jewish Studies and the Institute of 
Physics and Mathematics. An open air theatre situated on 
the eastern slope of the hill looks out over the picturesque 
Jordan valley and the Dead Sea. 

A numerous and competent faculty has been gathered, 
the beginnings of a worthy library have been assembled, and 
students have come from many directions to pursue studies 
at this new center. It is proper that in a country like Pales¬ 
tine the first attention should be given to subjects relating 
to the public health. But such appropriate disciplines as 
Semitics and archaeology are not neglected. It is the ulti¬ 
mate purpose to complete the program of the institution 

many other Jews to relate themselves to an antiquity long ago lost, and also the 
wish to revive in the university the type of Hebrew culture which is the chief 
pride of the Jew, one can easily understand and excuse the use of the term 
“ Hebrew University.” 

— 332 — 





The Rise of Zionism 


with the full equipment and curriculum of a modern edu¬ 
cational institution of the first class. It will be the purpose 
of this foundation to re-create after centuries of comparative 
silence the traditions of Jamnia, Sura, Pombidita, the Moor¬ 
ish universities and the French and Rhenish academies, and 
to provide for Jewish students an institution to which not 
only those of their own faith may resort, but as well scholars 
of Christian and Moslem association for study in an atmos¬ 
phere particularly adapted to work in biblical, talmudic 
and koranic subjects. The University is the realization of 
the hopes cherished by Herman Shapira, a professor in 
Heidelberg, who first conceived the idea. 

The institution is particularly fortunate in having for 
its chancellor Dr. Judah L. Magnes of California, whose 
academic history includes the University of Cincinnati, the 
Hebrew Union College and studies in Berlin and Heidel¬ 
berg. 13 His contact with Jewish villages in Galicia and 
Russian Poland, and his experience as rabbi in Brooklyn and 
New York City gave him an insight into the problems of 
Judaism and the needs of his people. His election as chan¬ 
cellor of the University opened to him a field of immense 
opportunity, and at the same time one of extraordinary dif¬ 
ficulty. His statesmanlike and constructive spirit has made 
it impossible for him to satisfy the rabid element in Zionism 
which is intolerant of the Arab majority in the land, and 
insistent on aggressive measures for the complete and im¬ 
mediate realization of all the possible implications of the 
Balfour declaration. Dr. Magnes is able to satisfy neither the 

13 See an article by S. R. Harlow in the Christian Century for Aug. 12, 
1931, " A Portrait of Judah L. Magnes.” 


—333 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


extreme radicals nor the extreme conservatives. On the oc¬ 
casion of the delivery of his inaugural address at the Uni¬ 
versity a portion of the audience hissed his words, and 
insisted that a bolder attitude should be assumed toward the 
Arab element in the land and the British administration. 
Dr. Magnes has made his position clear at all times. He 
has three demands in his program: the right of Jewish im¬ 
migration to Palestine, the right to settle on the land, and 
the development of Jewish life and culture. If his leadership 
can be followed, and his conciliatory attitude adopted by 
Zionist leaders, there would seem to be excellent grounds of 
hope for an amicable adjustment of Zionist-Arabic differ- 
erences. If not, the situation is perilous and the future a 
problem. 

Among the ambitions of Zionism are the development 
of the Hebrew language, a Hebrew press and a Hebrew 
theatre. The first of these projects is attended with great 
difficulty, as every student of language can understand. No 
one who has had any experience in the revival of an old 
language like Latin, Greek or Gaelic, or in the promotion of 
a new one, like Volapiik or Esperanto, will wonder at the 
difficulties encountered or the limited success attained. It 
is the plan and effort which stir one’s imagination. The 
Hebrew language, whose classic literature is confined to the 
Old Testament, has an extremely limited vocabulary, in 
which almost none of the scientific, technical words of the 
modern world have a place. A new terminology is there¬ 
fore in process of construction under the direction of a Board 
of Language. The result is not the elaborate dignified He¬ 
brew of the Hebron and Tiberias schools, but a new He- 


—334 — 




The Rise of Zionism 


brew for the new Jew of the secular, modern type. The pro¬ 
nunciation is a further problem. In the American schools 
of Zionist type where Hebrew is taught as a vernacular, the 
Askenazim or Russo-German system prevails. But in Pales¬ 
tine the Sephardic method is regarded as superior, which 
fact presents a real difficulty. But this is only one of many 
problems encountered. Hebrew as spoken in Palestine faces 
the disabilities of variety of pronunciation, limitation of vo¬ 
cabulary, and the constant intermixture of other and more 
familiar forms of speech. It is a common saying among Jews 
there that other Jews speak very poor Hebrew. This is true 
between Jews of different national groups. Within those 
circles the customary language of the group, German, Rus¬ 
sian, English, French or Yiddish is spoken because it is 
easier. Hebrew as spoken in Palestine as yet is hardly a 
language at all such as would be recognized by teachers of 
classic Hebrew. It is a linga franca, or language of accom¬ 
modation. In fact three types of language are met in Pales¬ 
tine today. First, the group speech of the different nations 
from which Jews have come, English, French, Arabic, etc. 
Second, the jargon tongues, like Yiddish, Ladino, Jewish- 
Arabic, etc. Third, the modern Zionistic Hebrew, which is 
used chiefly for business and social life when no other is 
available. A noble effort is being made to revive the Hebrew 
tongue in its pure and sonorous form, but it is a process of 
great difficulty, and is by no means successful as yet. 14 

The Hebrew theatre in Palestine is rendering excellent 
service in the popularization of the new speech. Yet its 

14 cf. an article by Vincent Sheean, The Hebrew Revival, in Asia for 
December, 1929, pp. 935-41. 


—335— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


reach is limited, either through the regular drama or in the 
talking moving pictures, and it is remarked that half the 
audience is busy explaining to the other half the words of 
the play. At the same time the effort to introduce Yiddish 
films at Tel-Aviv has met with instant and violent opposi¬ 
tion as calculated to endanger the Hebrew speech movement. 
The Jewish press is another feature of the cultural activity 
which is proceeding in Palestine. This includes the journals 
now being issued in English and modern Hebrew, and the 
publications of members of the University staff. 

Naturally there are various attitudes toward Zionism on 
the part of Jews both in Palestine and in other lands. The 
majority of Palestinian Jews are favorable, some of them 
intensely and even fanatically so. They are the ones who 
profit most immediately by the movement, and are in posi¬ 
tion to see its progress. A large portion of these Jews are 
inspired with the conviction that the land belongs of right 
to their race, and that they are only returning to take pos¬ 
session of it again after centuries of exile. No doubt this 
has encouraged in some of them an attitude of possessorship 
amounting to arrogance and insolence in their contacts with 
the Arab people in the land. It would be strange if this 
were not the case in certain instances. 

Yet all Jews in the land are not of this mind. This is 
particularly true of the members of the older colonies whose 
relations with their non-Jewish neighbors have been dis¬ 
turbed by the aggressiveness of some of the Zionist propa¬ 
ganda. It may be affirmed with confidence that all save an 
unimportant minority of the Jews in Palestine are favorable 
to the Zionistic program, and hopeful of its success. Many 

—336— 




The Rise of Zionism 


of them are intensely serious in their demands for immediate 
realization of all the features envisaged by them in the Bal¬ 
four declaration — such as unlimited Jewish immigration, 
Jewish control of the governmental agencies in the land, 
including both sides of the Jordan, and the carrying out of 
the mandate stipulations in a manner which shall leave no 
doubt in the mind of the Arab population that the future of 
the country lies with the Jew. 

A much smaller group is sensible of the difficulties 
which the British government is facing in its effort to ful¬ 
fill promises made both to the Jews and the Arabs. This 
type of Zionist is prepared to exercise patience, knowing 
that the problem of securing amicable relations between the 
Arab majority and the Jewish minority is one of great 
delicacy and difficulty, and that the danger most to be depre¬ 
cated is the arousal of Arab fanaticism and hostility. The 
combined Arab states contiguous to Palestine have a popula¬ 
tion of not less than nine or ten millions. No police force 
which Great Britain might be able to summon would be ade¬ 
quate to the protection of Jews in Palestine against the 
aggression of an aroused and belligerent Moslem population 
in Transjordania and the near-by Arab states. There must 
be an amicable method of meeting the situation. This is 
the attitude of Chancellor Magnes and of men of his mod¬ 
erate and constructive point of view. Will they be allowed 
to work out their program of Jewish-Arab cooperation, or 
are there to be further scenes of riot such as the Wailing 
Wall episode of August 1929? 

In Europe and the United States there are the same va¬ 
rieties of opinion among Jews regarding Zionism as in 


—337 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Palestine, although by no means in the same proportion. It 
is not going beyond the facts to say that the majority of Jews 
in the world are as yet uninterested in the project or are 
opposed to it. In eastern Europe where they have suffered 
most from anti-Semitism they are favorable to any plan 
which promises amendment of their condition, without more 
than an emotional reaction toward the Palestine project. 
In England there is on the whole a favorable attitude, chiefly 
due to the traditional view regarding Jewish antiquity and 
the biblical anticipations of a national return to that land. 
Such vagaries as Anglo-Israelism have likewise had their 
effect. But most of all English Jews are convinced that the 
British government is committed to the Zionistic program 
by the Balfour declaration, and they want to see its pro¬ 
visions carried out. There are numbers of Jews who have 
reached high positions in British official life, including such 
men as Sir Herbert Samuel, recently High Commissioner 
for Palestine, Rufus Daniel Isaacs (Lord Reading), recently 
viceroy of India, Lord Malchett, and several well-known 
journalists. Whatever the attitude of such men may be re¬ 
garding the particular policies of Zionism they are in posi¬ 
tion to be of great service to Jewish interests at home and 
abroad. 

In the United States opinion appears to be more sharply 
drawn between Jewish leaders who are favorable to Zionism 
and those who hold contrary views. There are many promi¬ 
nent members of the race both rabbis and men of other 
callings who are devoted to the cause — such men for ex¬ 
ample as Justice Louis D. Brandeis of the Supreme Court, 
Judge Julian W. Mack and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. Some 

—338— 




The Rise of Zionism 


of the Zionist leaders are bitter in their denunciation of the 
British government for its failure to carry out the promises 
made the Zionists. They insist that Palestine both east and 
west of the Jordan should be placed under Zionist control and 
that at least 100,000 Jewish immigrants should be brought 
into the country within the next five years. A much larger 
number of Jews, among whom are some of the most in¬ 
telligent and progressive rabbis, remain unconvinced regard¬ 
ing both the practicability and the desirability of the Zionist 
plans. They are willing to contribute generously to the 
benevolent funds for the care of indigent Jews in eastern 
Europe and Palestine, as they do for similar charities at 
home. They are even willing in many instances to make 
donations to the cause of Palestine reconstruction on the 
grounds of sentiment. But they are not greatly moved 
by the proposals of Zionism, knowing something of 
the difficulties, political and economic, which it must 
encounter. And there are great numbers of Jews par¬ 
ticularly among the orthodox, who are wholly opposed 
to the project on grounds of religious conviction, or are 
actually unaware of the entire proposal. It needs to be added 
that the advocates of Zionism are making an earnest and 
vigorous campaign to interest their fellow religionists, and 
apparently not without success. Carefully directed efforts 
are made both through the press and by platform and syna¬ 
gogue addresses to arouse interest in the enterprise. 

Many shades of opinion are expressed in the official 
gatherings of the Zionist organizations both in the United 
States and in Europe. Annual gatherings of the Zionist 
Congress have been held in Basle, Switzerland, for a score 


—339 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


of years, in which the policies of Zionism have been dis¬ 
cussed with great freedom, and often with wide differences 
of view. The resignation of Dr. Chaim Weizmann as presi¬ 
dent of the World Zionist organization and of the Jewish 
Agency for Palestine, on October 21, 1930 was in protest 
against the Palestine policy of the British government, but 
also in criticism of extreme anti-British statements made on 
the floor of the congress. Dr. Weizmann maintained that 
Jews should do nothing to impair the friendly feeling be¬ 
tween themselves and Great Britain. Other resignations of 
leading Zionists, such as the late Lord Malchett and Felix 
M. Warburg, from official positions in Jewish organizations 
have been intended as effective protests against British poli¬ 
cies in Palestine. Nahum Sokolow, chairman of the Zionist 
Executive, was chosen president of the Congress in succession 
to Dr. Weizmann. 

A heavy financial burden is carried by the Jewish 
Agency for Palestine, a deficit of four millions of dollars 
being reported at the 1931 meeting. Jews all over the world 
are contributing to this fund, which is the major item in 
the Zionist budget. It is used for educational, health and 
sanitation service in Palestine. In addition generous gifts 
have been made by individual Jews, like the late Nathan 
Straus, for the construction and maintenance of hospi¬ 
tals, dispensaries and homes which are rendering efficient 
service not alone to the Jewish but as well to the Arab 
population. 

Thus far the more important aspects of Zionism have 
been considered. No one can fail to be impressed with the 
nobility of the idea, and its far-reaching implications. The 


—340 — 




The Rise of Zionism 


mood of the western world, and perhaps even more of 
the orient, is turning favorably to the program of self- 
determination for all people. That great ideal which 
emerged from the anguish of the world war caught the 
imagination of many disinherited, expatriated and depressed 
peoples, and though only meagrely realized as yet in the 
continued effort to maintain supremacies and balances of 
power, it has had its undoubted effect on the world’s think¬ 
ing, and to this extent has favored the aspirations of the 
Jews for a homeland and an independent place among the 
nations. 

Nor can Christians be unaffected by such incidents. 
Judaism is nearest to Christianity in the great household of 
religions. The basic beliefs of the two groups are the same. 
As time goes on and partisan views recede it is desirable 
and inevitable that Jews and Christians shall come into 
more cordial and intimate relations in the attainment of 
their ideals. Any series of events, therefore, which affects 
the Jewish people, either as a whole or in so conspicuous a 
part as the Zionist group, cannot be without real significance 
to the Christian world. 

In attempting to discuss the problem of Zionism it is 
natural to assume an attitude favorable to the Jewish people 
as a whole, inclusive of the Zionists, who at the present time 
have attracted to themselves a large measure of interest. 
Whatever one’s sentiments may be regarding particular 
features of the movement, the place of the Jew in the cul¬ 
tural, ethical and religious life of the world elicits approval. 
And whatever the Jews as a race and the rest of the onlook- 
ing public may think of Zionism, few will find them- 


— 341 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


selves able to withhold their admiration in view of the 
heroism and gallantry which have animated the pioneers 
and a great company of the humbler workers in that 
enterprise. 

In speaking particularly of the communal Zionist 
colonies a non-Jewish but sympathetic observer writes ap¬ 
preciatively of the “homeland” idea, and adds: “But in 
the communal colonies you feel something else as well. It 
is the spirit of dedication not merely to Zion, but to a better 
Zion; it is the contagion of an enthusiasm not merely to re¬ 
claim the land, but to restore it to ways of justice, righteous¬ 
ness and peace which shall fulfill the defeated dreams of the 
prophets who are Israael’s greatest gift to humankind. The 
thought of the Communists far outreaches and transcends 
the bounds of the Zionist movement itself. They are Zion¬ 
ists, to be sure; but also more than Zionists. If Zionism 
meant nothing other than populating and planting Pales¬ 
tine, and adding one more to the nations of the world, they 
would not be interested. But what they see in Palestine 
today is a chance to build a new nation — to begin the age- 
old social experiment all over again — to avoid the mistakes 
that have cursed and ultimately destroyed all civilizations 
hitherto, and by laying deep and sure at the start the du¬ 
rable conditions of brotherhood and peace, establish at last 
the ideal society upon the earth.” 15 

There are other aspects of the subject which are of equal 
importance, and which demand consideration in any bal¬ 
anced assessment of the theme. Many are of the opinion 
that the plan as projected by the Zionist leaders is practicable 

15 John Haynes Holmes, in “ Unity,” Feb. 16, 1930. 

— 342 — 




The Rise of Zionism 


and in process of realization. Others, not so optimistic, be¬ 
lieve that in time a small homogeneous Jewish nation may 
be formed within the Arabic province of Palestine, but that 
it will require both foreign protection and support. The 
problem of Palestine is still unresolved. 


343 — 




XII 

JEW AND ARAB IN PALESTINE 

The chief problem which confronts Zionism today is 
not that of economic solvency, difficult as that may seem. It 
is that of populational adjustment. Palestine is an old and 
well inhabited land. Its population is not as large as the 
country will accommodate, but at all periods in its history, 
save the times of complete collapse through famine or war, 
it has been reasonably populous, and is today. The people 
represent many different strains, but they are dominantly 
Arabic, with a strong Jewish minority, and smaller groups 
of many sorts. The Arabic element is said to number some¬ 
what more than 1,100,000 in a total population of 1,300,000. 
The Jews number about 170,000. The other groups are 
smaller. 1 

Historically the masters of the land have been succes¬ 
sively the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and, with two 
centuries of interruption by the crusaders, the Turks for 
the past dozen centuries until the end of the world war and 
the establishment of the British mandate. During the cen¬ 
turies of Turkish rule the population has been dominantly 
Arabic, with a small group of Turkish officials in control. 
Both Turks and Arabs are Moslems, professing the faith of 
the Prophet of Islam. Before the days of the crusades the 
military power of Islam passed from the Arabs to the Turks, 

1 See page 34. 

— 344 “ 


Jew and Arab in Palestine 


and the caliphate, or “ successorship ” to Mohammed, was 
merged in the office of Turkish sultan in Constantinople 
(Istanbul). This has been a situation greatly deplored by 
the Arabs, who resented the intrusion of an alien of Mongo¬ 
lian race into the sacred heritage of the Prophet. The fall 
of the sultan raised the hopes of the many Arab states that 
the caliphate might be restored to a member of their race . 2 

The four pillars of the law of Islam are prayer, of the 
five daily periods; fasting, particularly during the holy 
month of Ramadan; the pilgrimage to Mecca, which con¬ 
fers special merit; and the giving of alms to the poor. While 
Moslems are scattered over the entire orient, and are of many 
races, Arabia as the home of the Prophet is the bond of 
their religion, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina as 
connected with his life are places of special reverence. 
Hardly less sacred to them is Jerusalem, as the scene of the 
Prophet’s alleged night visit, and the spot from which he 
ascended to heaven. In a lesser degree Hebron is revered 
as connected with the life of the prophet Abraham, and the 
place of his burial. The Koran, the sacred book of the 
Moslems, makes constant reference to the holy men of 
the Old and New Testaments as “ prophets,” beginning with 
Adam and ending with Jesus. Mohammed alone holds a 
higher rank in the prophetic order. 

The holy cities of Arabia are believed to be profaned 

2 There are several divisions of Moslems, as there are of Christians. The 
chief Moslem sects are the Shiites and the Sunnites. Another classification refers 
to their relation to a caliph, which office is in a manner like that of the pope in 
the Catholic church. The Moslems who would correspond to the Catholic section 
of Christendom and would acknowledge the authority of a caliph would be 
those of Arab, of Indian and Persian type. The Protestant Moslems, less inter¬ 
ested in a lineal successor to the Prophet, are of the Turkish group. 


-345- 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


by the presence of any non-Moslem, and few such have ever 
been able to visit them and return. In consequence the 
Arabs of the peninsula, and particularly of Mecca and 
Medina, regard themselves as belonging to a superior class, 
the aristocracy of Islam. Most of the population of Egypt 
and farther Africa is Moslem, but the Arabs of Palestine are 
of purer blood than those of Egypt, and their Arabic is 
nearer the classical tongue of the Koran. Of kindred race 
are the Arabs of Transjordania, Yemen, Iraq, the Hijaz, the 
Nejd, and a number of smaller areas which form the out¬ 
lying neighborhood of Palestine. They regard themselves 
as belonging to a potential league of Arab states, with a 
common speech and a common faith. 

Furthermore, there is of late a profound awakening of 
Arab self-consciousness as the result of the war and the events 
which have taken place since. The Arab of the educated 
type realizes that to his race belong a history and a culture 
which have few equals in the story of civilization. Over all 
the region where once the Semitic races held sway, Arabic 
is the prevailing speech, spoken by Moslems, Jews and Chris¬ 
tians alike. It is a living tongue, with all the characteristics 
of daily conversation, public address, journalism and books 
which form one of the most extensive literatures in existence. 
The peoples of all the near east, Syrians, Egyptians and 
Iraqis, as well as Palestinians and even the Samaritans of 
Nablous, speak the Arabic language, which comes in un¬ 
broken tradition from the times of the Prophet. 3 The Arabs 
once held an empire which in a few years conquered the 

3 Cf. Professor James A. Montgomery, Arabia Today, in the “Journal of 
the American Oriental Society,” June, 1927, pp. 97-132. 

—346— 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


whole of the territory lying between the Iranian plateau, the 
Armenian mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Arab teachers transmitted to the unawakened world of 
Europe the knowledge of the ancient classics of Greece and 
Rome. Arabic was the Latin of all western Asia. Arab 
scholars studied Aristotle, Archimedes and Galen in the 
schools of Baghdad and Cairo and, with the assistance of 
learned Jews, handed on this culture to the Moorish uni¬ 
versities of Spain; for, as already pointed out, 4 Arabs and Jews 
were the enlighteners of Europe in the Dark Ages. Mathe¬ 
matics came to new values in Arabic hands. The nine 
numerals were the Arabic adaptation of mathematical signs 
originating in India, and relieved the world of the incubus 
of the Roman notation. 5 Al-Geber devised the mathemati¬ 
cal science which bears his name. Arab astronomers in¬ 
vented instruments and calculated the orbits of stars six 
centuries before the science became known in Europe. The 
Arabic culture of the court of Haroun ar-Rashid at Baghdad 
far surpassed that of his contemporary Charlemagne at Aix-la- 
Chapelle. An Arabic proverb declared that “ the ink of the 
learned is as precious as the blood of the martyrs.” 

When the Mongols under Genghis Khan and Tamer¬ 
lane swept down from their arid plateaus on this world of 
Arabic culture they destroyed its structure, but they yielded 
to its spell. The wild tribes from Turkestan took over the 
speech, the civilization and the religion of the conquered 
people. The Turks became Moslems and adopted the Arabic 
language and customs. The court of the Mongol khan of 

4 See page 294. 

5 How did the Roman mathematicians work problems in cube root or 
calculus with the cumbersome system of Roman numerals? 


—347— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Persia was as brilliant as that of Cairo, and far surpassed that 
of papal Rome in art and literature. The retinue of Saladin 
in Damascus was a marvel to those who came from the west. 
The Turks in two centuries adopted the arts and refinements 
of the Arabs, and in comparison with the Greeks of Con¬ 
stantinople or the Moslems of Syria most of the crusaders 
appeared barbarous and brutal. 

It is in the light of this brilliant past that the Moslems, 
both Arab and Turk, view the present question of the posses¬ 
sion of Palestine. The Turk has been given his dismissal 
from the land and its neighboring regions, and has with¬ 
drawn his capital from Istanbul to Ankara (Angora). 
But under the masterful leadership of Mustapha Kemal 
Pasha he has turned his face westward, has adopted the Latin 
alphabet, has separated church and state, church and school, 
church and law, has abolished the dervish superstition, has 
closed the mediaeval Moslem schools, has made polygamy 
illegal, has banished the fez for men and the veil for women 
and is building a modern state on European and American 
models. 

Equally ambitious is the modern, progressive Arab. He 
is both conscious and proud of the story of his race. The 
squalor and poverty, the ignorance and filth found in so 
many of the Moslem villages of Palestine are evident enough, 
as such conditions are wherever the Turk held sway. The 
same conditions were to be found in many of the Jewish 
quarters under the old regime and are even yet. Jews and 
Arabs alike were the victims of a vicious and tyrannical gov¬ 
ernment, and the Arabs were as unhappy and resentful as 
the Jews. Now both races have a new vision of opportunity, 

—348— 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


and each is eager to make the most of the occasion. Poor 
as is Palestine in natural resources, it is more fruitful than 
the desert from which most of its people, ancient and modern, 
have come. It is the garden spot of the great Arabian paral¬ 
lelogram which stretches north-west and south-east from 
the fertile crescent to the Indian Ocean and from the Red 
Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Arab peasant of Palestine, with 
his primitive plow and sickle, his ox and camel yoked un¬ 
equally together, does not impress the beholder with the 
idea of thrift and competence. And many of the Mos¬ 
lem homes and the dark underground school rooms are 
depressing. 

But a new spirit is astir in the land. Improved govern¬ 
mental conditions under the British mandate, the spur of 
emulation of the more progressive and thrifty Jewish colo¬ 
nies, and the aspirations resulting from the consciousness of 
larger liberty and expanding power have given the Arab 
population of Palestine a new sense of its dignity and pos¬ 
sibilities. For this new spirit no little credit is due the 
Zionists, and their coming has been a blessing to the entire 
population. With the marked releases of opportunity and 
energy possible under the new mandate regime, almost any 
population would awaken to life and hope. But the Zion¬ 
ists by their initiative and even more by their funds have 
opened a new era in the history of the land. That they re¬ 
gard this as providential, the answer of God to the prayers 
of generations of their people, and the open path to the 
achievement of their historic mission is both natural and op¬ 
portune. The redemption of Palestine from the hands of 
such a race as the Turks was a consummation devoutly to be 


349 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


wished. The alert and ambitious type of Jew has set an 
example of industry and competence which has not been 
lost on the more lethargic Arab; and the claims made by 
the more confident and even arrogant Zionists have aroused 
the Moslem population to alarm and resentment. Zionism 
has shattered the old, easy-going, tolerant and friendly senti¬ 
ment between Jews and Arabs, and has set both peoples on 
edge with a sense of new opportunity and perhaps of im¬ 
pending trouble. 

Of this rising apprehension and hostility the Wailing 
Wall and the Balfour declaration are the symbols and occa¬ 
sions. The Wailing Wall 6 is an exposed portion of the Hero- 
dian wall of Jerusalem on the west side of the Haram es- 
Sharif (the Noble, or August Sanctuary), built on Mt. Zion, 7 
or Moriah, and formerly the site of the temples of Solomon, 
Zerubbabel and Herod. The Haram is crowned with two 
large and several small edifices. The most important is the 
lovely Kubbat es-Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock, often mis¬ 
called the Mosque of Omar. This building is particularly 
sacred, as it covers the rock where traditionally Abraham 
offered his sacrifice, where the altar of burnt offerings stood, 
and from which it is alleged the prophet Mohammed as¬ 
cended to heaven. The wall surrounding the Haram con¬ 
tains some remnants of Graeco-Roman Jerusalem. The 
south-western part of the wall, containing these lower courses 
of old masonry, is exposed for some distance and reveals a 

6 Cf. Vincent Sheean, The Stone Symbol of Jewish Dreams, “Asia,” 
January, 1930, pp. 31-37. 

7 Tradition since the time of the empress Helena has given the name 
of Zion to the upper or Herodian city. But the biblical data make it clear that 
Zion and Moriah were the same, the eastern hill, on which the successive 
temples were erected; see p. 326. 


— 350 — 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


number of large stones which have acquired the reputation 
of having belonged to the temple of Solomon. This is not 
the case. There are no remnants of the temple of Solomon 
anywhere yet discovered. These stones belong to the courses 
of masonry included in the temple built by Herod to concili¬ 
ate the Jewish people. Most of the wall is Moslem, and has 
been for hundreds of years. 

This spot was selected sometime in the past by the Jews 
in Jerusalem as their place of worship and lamentation. 
How long it has been thus held sacred by them is not known, 
but probably for some centuries. By some it is claimed that 
the custom is as old as the sixth century. It is not certain 
that this particular spot has been the only one so venerated. 
Another section of the wall further north bears late Hebrew 
inscriptions which suggest that it may once have been used 
as a place of Jewish service. The privilege of using this spot 
for worship was suspended for a time during the last cen¬ 
tury, but the renewal of the privilege was obtained from the 
sultan by Sir Moses Montefiore. 

Any inspection of the place will show that it is an unfortu¬ 
nate choice, for Moslem tradition affirms that it is the loca¬ 
tion of the underground mosque of El-Buraq, the Prophet’s 
horse, which was tethered there by the archangel Gabriel. 
The wall is part of the sacred Islamic wall and the entire 
plot is the inviolable Waqf (an entailed, inalienable space) 
of Abu Madian, an Arab saint of at least five hundred years 
standing. The Zionists claim that this is a late Moslem tradi¬ 
tion, devised to invalidate the rights of Jews to access to the 
spot. This has not been substantiated. 

The service which is held at the Wailing Wall on Friday 


—351 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


evenings, the beginning of the Sabbath, is informal in char¬ 
acter, consisting of readings from the book of prayers, a 
responsive service chiefly taken from the book of Lamenta¬ 
tions, a threnody over the fall of the city. The service is 
usually conducted by a rabbi, and the responses are given 
by the circle about him. There may be several of these cir¬ 
cles in the small area along the wall. The term “ wailing ” 
is something of a misnomer, although genuine grief is often 
manifested by participants in the service. It is the tradition 
that the Jews of Jerusalem who receive the “ haluka,” the 
portion or dole given to pensioners, are obligated to maintain 
the services at the Wailing Wall in behalf of Jews through¬ 
out the world. 

The question of Jewish rights at this spot is not one of 
recent origin. As long ago as 1840 the Jews made an effort 
to secure possession of the wall by putting in a pavement in 
front of it. In reference to this request the governor of Pales¬ 
tine, Mohammed Sharif, the official representative of Ibrahim 
Pasha, son of Mehemit Ali of Cairo, wrote Seyyed Ahmed 
Agha Duzdar, Governor-General of Jerusalem, that because 
of the fact that “ the place to which the Jewish petitioners 
have made reference, with a view to paving it, is adjoining 
the wall of Haram es-Sharif and also to the tethering place 
of El-Buraq, and in addition to this is within the Waqf prop¬ 
erty of His Saintliness Abu Madian . . . and whereas it is 
found that such a request by the Jews is not permitted by Es- 
Sharia (the sacred law of Islam), therefore the Jews cannot 
be allowed to make this pavement.” Various other restric¬ 
tions are added, limiting the right of access to “ visits in ac¬ 
cordance with the ancient custom.” 


“352“ 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


Apparently the Jews did not take very seriously the Mos¬ 
lem claim to the sanctity of the place, or else they believed 
it possible to secure by gradual steps a certain property right 
in the Wailing Wall. At least the official ruling was re¬ 
peated several times after the European powers restored 
Palestine to Turkey in 1841. The most explicit warning was 
given in 1912, when the Jews undertook to introduce at the 
wall the appurtenances of a synagogue, including chairs, 
table and other articles. This called forth a resolution of the 
Administrative Council, which after reciting the causes of 
the action proceeded: — “the said road, lying among the 
Waqf buildings adjoining the Wall of the glorious Mosque 
of El-Aksa to the west, is a private road without an outlet; 
and in addition to this, the said road is one of those belonging 
to the Waqf. Therefore it is not allowed by Es-Sharia under 
any circumstances that anything be placed there, or any in¬ 
novation brought in, whether it be tools or instruments like 
chairs, screens or any other thing.” 8 

One may easily share the feeling of most Zionists that 
there is much pretence and sophistry in connection with the 
Moslem claims regarding the Waqf of Abu Madian and 
its inviolability. Yet no one who understands the Arab 
character and his reverence for shrines supposed in any man¬ 
ner to be associated with the career of the Prophet can doubt 
the hold which this tradition has upon the Moslem mind. 
And since the official record appears clearly to be on their 
side, they evidently propose to make the most of it. That 
the property rights of the place lie with the Moslems and are 

8 Quoted by Sheean ( loc. cit., p. 37) from the official record of the Wailing 
Wall in the archives of the Waqf Department of the Palestine Government. 


— 353 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


so recognized by the Zionists is shown by the fact that in 
1919 an effort was made by the latter to purchase the site. 
The offer was made by Ronald Storrs, and the price offered 
was $400,000. This was of course refused. 9 But steady en¬ 
croachments were made from time to time. On the Jewish 
Day of Atonement in September 1928 what seemed like a 
deliberate effort to create an open synagogue was made by 
the Jews, who brought many of the appurtenances of a place 
of worship, of which a screen to separate the men from the 
women was the most conspicuous and offensive. This threat¬ 
ened serious trouble, and the screen was removed by the 
Deputy District Commissioner, at which action the Zionists 
were deeply offended. In consequence of this episode the 
British government issued a White Paper in November re¬ 
counting the events of the Day of Atonement, and stating 
that the Wailing Wall is Moslem property, which the Jews 
however have the right to visit, but only with such acces¬ 
sories of worship (the Arabs say books of prayer, the Jews 
say chairs) as they were allowed under Turkish rule. This 
was the situation at the time of the outbreak on August 
23,1929. 

In order the better to understand this tragic event it is 
well to have in mind the political situation which forms its 
background. Palestine, as already stated, is occupied by ap¬ 
proximately a million Arabs whose official head is the Grand 
Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Rais al-Ulema (President of 
the supreme Moslem religious court), with complete author¬ 
ity over Moslem schools, charities, mosques, clergy and 
courts. Immediately to the east across the Jordan lies the 

9 Cf. Sheean, loc. cit., p. 61. 

—354— 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


district called Transjordania, which is approximately the area 
which in Roman days was the province of Arabia. The great 
peninsula which now bears that name is occupied by a num¬ 
ber of additional Arab states, such as Syria, the Hijaz, Iraq, 
the Nejd, Hasa, Yemen, Aden, Asir, Oman, Kuweit, Kerek, 
Bahrein, Bab al-Mandeb, Hadramaut, etc., to the number of 
twenty-five, conscious of their racial, linguistic and religious 
unity, and eager, now that the caliphate has ceased to be a 
Turkish perquisite, to form a Pan-Islamic league and choose 
an Arabic successor to the Prophet. 

These states have an Arabic population of nine or ten 
millions. Closely affiliated with them are the Moslems of 
Egypt, central Africa, India and other lands as far distant 
as China. Notable leaders have risen among these Arabs 
in recent years. The most conspicuous of them was Sherif 
Husein of Mecca, a descendant of the Prophet and king of 
Hijaz, who proclaimed himself caliph, and for a time was 
the outstanding figure in the Arabic world. He had four 
sons: Ali, who succeeded him as king of Hijaz, Feisal now 
king of Iraq, Abdullah later emir of Transjordania, and 
Emir Zeid. An energetic and powerful figure is Ibn Saud, 
king of the Nejd, perhaps the greatest of all Arabs today, and 
believed by most informed observers to be destined to a 
notable career as an Arab leader. 

With the approach of the world war the chief concern 
of the British government was the safety of the Suez Canal, 
the jugular vein of the empire, its essential means of com¬ 
munication with India. With the Turks in control of Pales¬ 
tine and allied with the Central Powers, the danger of this 
area was acute, as was shown by an alarming although unsuc- 


—355 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


cessful attack on the Canal in February 1915. Manifestly 
the most promising plan of defense lay in securing the aid 
of the Arab tribes of Sinai and the Transjordan region, who, 
although Moslems like the Turks, were not inclined to re¬ 
spond to the Turkish call to a “ jihad ” or Moslem holy war 
against the Allies. The dream of a Pan-Arabic empire and 
the restoration of the caliphate to its Meccan inheritance 
had long been cherished by Syrian and other Arabs. 10 Con¬ 
ferences between Husein and the British officials in Egypt 
began in 1914 and were made more urgent by the German- 
Turkish attack in the following winter. 

In July, 1915 Sir Henry MacMahon, British High Com¬ 
missioner for Egypt, completed a definite agreement with 
Husein in behalf of the Arab tribes for their entrance into 
the combination of the allied forces. The stipulation in¬ 
cluded the plan of an Arab government, which with cer¬ 
tain specific exceptions, like the British rights at Aden, 
Basrah and in northern Syria, should extend “ to the Taurus 
on the north, including Cilicia, and embrace the whole 
extent of land between the Mediterranean and the Persian 
highlands.” That this included Palestine was never ques¬ 
tioned. The documents have not been published, but have 
been examined by interested scholars who have gone through 
the files furnished from the library of King Feisal at Bagh¬ 
dad. The Arabs understood that the promise was con¬ 
firmed by the proclamation of General Maude in Baghdad, 
March 19, 1917. Members of the British government have 
denied that the agreement necessarily included Palestine, yet 
it would be difficult to explain the exclusion of the most 

10 Montgomery, loc. cit., p. 103. 

—356— 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


important portion of the stipulated area in a contract so vital 
to Arab hopes and to British security. 

On the basis of the agreement thus made Husein and his 
Arabs made a beginning at the fulfillment of his part of the 
contract, but with only indifferent results. Then it was that 
Thomas E. Lawrence, that taciturn and mysterious adven¬ 
turer, one of the most remarkable characters in the war, 
speaking Arabic like a native, who had been in close contact 
with the Arabs of the Hijaz and Sinai since the autumn of 

1916, organized the camel corps of the desert, took Husein’s 
son Feisal as the most promising leader for the Arabs, and 
by putting the Hijaz railroad out of commission as far north 
as Amman, materially assisted Lord Allenby’s campaign in 

1917, which culminated in the surrender of Jerusalem De¬ 
cember 9, and the victorious battle of Mt. Ephraim in the 
following September. 

In the meantime, while the Arab leaders were counting 
on the fulfillment of the promises made them, and Husein 
was actually proclaiming himself caliph, the British and 
French governments entered into a compact known as the 
Sykes-Picot Agreement (May 16, 1916) which was not pub¬ 
lished until after the war. By this pact the territory north 
of Arabia was divided into two zones of control, the French 
taking the northern and the British the southern, Palestine 
being reserved for “ an international administration ” whose 
form was to be decided by the Allies “ and the representatives 
of the Sherif of Mecca” (Husein). Within that territory 
“ France and Great Britain are disposed to recognize an in¬ 
dependent Arab state or Confederation of Arab States.” 11 

11 Montgomery, loc. cit., p. 104. 


-357- 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


This was the ambiguous situation when on November 2, 
1917 the Balfour declaration was issued, 12 virtually promising 
Palestine to the Jewish people as a “homeland,” with the 
understanding, however, that the plan was not to interfere 
in any manner with the rights of non-Jewish people in Pales¬ 
tine, nor with Jewish enterprises in any other region. To 
the charge that this declaration ignored the promises made 
the Arabs the answer was that it took precedence of all other 
British agreements. 

In December 1918 France and Great Britain finally 
agreed that the latter should administer Palestine, notwith¬ 
standing the earlier arrangement. When the mandates 
system was established at the Peace Conference it was also 
declared that certain communities formerly belonging to the 
Turkish empire should be provisionally recognized as inde¬ 
pendent nations subject to administrative advice of a manda¬ 
tory power until they were able to stand alone. The wishes 
of these communities were to be important factors in select¬ 
ing the mandatories. But the Supreme Allied Council 
awarded the mandate for Syria and Lebanon to France and 
for Palestine and Iraq to Great Britain, without reference to 
the opinions of the natives. The terms of the Palestine man¬ 
date declared that the mandatory should put the country 
under administrative, political and economic conditions 
which would secure the establishment of the Jewish na¬ 
tional home; should develop self-governing institutions and 
safeguard the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants 
of Palestine; should facilitate Jewish immigration and en¬ 
courage the close settlement of Jews on the land, including 

12 See page 64. 

-358- 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


state land and waste land, with the aid of the official Jewish 
agency and without prejudicing the rights of other sections 
of the population; should assume responsibility for holy 
places and religious sites without interfering with purely 
Moslem shrines, etc. 13 

The mandate for Palestine thus given to Great Britain 
by the Treaty of Sevres in 1919 was confirmed by the League 
Council at San Remo, April 24, 1920, and by the League of 
Nations July 24, 1922, “putting into effect the declaration 
originally made on November 2,1917 by the government of 
his Britannic Majesty and adopted by the said powers (the 
principal allied powers) in favor of the establishment 
in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it 
being clearly understood that nothing should be done which 
might prejudice the civil and religious rights of exist¬ 
ing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights 
and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other coun¬ 
try. 14 This merely repeats the language of the Balfour 
declaration. 

In 1920 the British military administration in Palestine, 
which had been in control since the surrender of Jerusalem 
in 1917, was replaced by the civil form of government, and 
Sir Herbert Samuel was appointed High Commissioner of 
Palestine and Transjordania, under the direction of the For¬ 
eign Office in London. It was his difficult task to satisfy 
as far as possible the Arab demands, to modify as well as he 
could the extravagance of the more radical Zionist claims, 
and to maintain a measure of order among an excited and 

13 “Information Service,” Federal Council of Churches of Christ in 
America, The Palestine Conflict, Nov. 23, 1929. 

14 Quoted verbatim from the Mandate for Palestine. 


—359 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


irritated people. This was not an easy achievement. Riots 
broke out in 1920 in various parts of the country. These were 
repeated in 1921. There was vigorous propaganda on both 
sides. Among the causes of disturbance were the Arab lands 
sold to Jews, the acquisition of important commercial rights 
by Zionists, the charge that political demonstrations were 
made by Jews in Tel-Aviv against Arabs, outbreaks in vari¬ 
ous parts of the country in which Arabs attacked Jewish set¬ 
tlements, absurd rumors that were spread after the Tel-Aviv 
demonstration to the effect that Jews had “killed all the 
Moslems in Jaffa ” and were about to attack the Mosque of 
Omar in Jerusalem. Most of these reports were quite with¬ 
out foundation, or were based on just enough fact to inflame 
ignorant and suspicious people. 

A commission was appointed at that time to investigate 
the various phases of the situation. The report attempted to 
place the blame for the troubles impartially upon the two 
parties. A general amnesty was granted by the High Com¬ 
missioner from which the Grand Mufti, the head of the 
Arab community in Palestine, was alone excluded on the 
ground that he had instigated the Jerusalem riots of the year 
before. He was however pardoned on a special petition later. 
The commission of that time did its best to steer a middle 
course between the claims of the racial groups concerned. 
Neither party was satisfied, which was not strange. The Bal¬ 
four declaration had precipitated a seemingly impossible 
situation. It had the appearance of an attempt by a highly 
placed official of the British empire, insufficiently acquainted 
with previous commitments of his government and with 
actual conditions in Palestine, to establish a national home 

—360— 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


for one race in a land which was already the national home 
of another race. 

The Arab leader Feisal, who had received the promise 
that an Arab nation was to be approved by the Allies, at¬ 
tended the Versailles Conference to plead his cause. He re¬ 
ceived no satisfaction and returned to Damascus in Decem¬ 
ber 1919, and was as a benevolent gesture proclaimed king 
of Syria on March 11, 1920, Palestine being definitely in¬ 
cluded in his territory. But the very next month the mandate 
for Syria was conferred on France by the League Council, 
and Feisal who declined to abdicate was defeated by the 
French at Meisalum near Damascus in July, and compelled 
to leave the country. He was later given the title of king 
of Iraq, under the British mandate for that area, with his 
capital at Baghdad (August 1921). That brief period of 
Feisal’s phantom “kingship of Syria,” with a territory de¬ 
fined as extending from Mount Sinai to the Taurus, and 
from the desert to the sea (thus including Palestine) was as 
near as the Arabs ever came to the realization of their hopes 
for the fulfillment of the British and allied promises. 15 An¬ 
other quieting potion was administered to the family of 
the Sherif Husein when his third son, Abdullah, was given the 
complimentary position of emir of Transjordania, under the 
British High Commissioner (February 1921). His resi¬ 
dence is at Amman, the capital of the district, and he has as 
his “ adviser ” a British official. It is understood that he re¬ 
ceives a subsidy of ^28,000 from the British government. 

From the date of the Balfour declaration there has been 
constant inter-racial disturbance in Palestine. Neither the 

1 5 Montgomery, loc. cit., pp. 106, 107. 

— 361 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Zionists nor the Arabs were satisfied with the situation. And 
neither party as a group has been responsible for the troubles 
that have arisen. The background of rival claims to Pales¬ 
tine accounts in large measure for the bitterness exhibited in 
the episodes that have transpired. For the most part the 
two races have lived together both in Jerusalem and else¬ 
where in the land in comparative friendliness. But the Arabs 
have been deeply stirred by the growing suspicion that the 
promises made them were to be ignored and the land handed 
over to the Jews. Particularly were the tribes across the 
Jordan excited by the trend of events, and organized them¬ 
selves for raids and reprisals. The Jews are a peaceful people 
but, relying on the declaration of Lord Balfour, they felt 
themselves within their rights in defending themselves as 
well as they could, and looked to Great Britain as the police 
power to protect them. There have been instances in which 
individual Jews have been at fault by reason of their in¬ 
sistent, deliberate and provocative assertion of rights. Both 
Jews and Arabs are excitable, and both have definite, asser¬ 
tive, and not always well-founded views regarding their re¬ 
spective claims to the land. The Palestine government is 
called upon in the meantime to administer law and justice un¬ 
der impossible conditions arising from contradictory commit¬ 
ments. It is not strange that there has been constant friction. 
It is not easy to see how even more tragic incidents are to be 
avoided in the future unless Zionists and Arabs discover a 
friendly attitude toward each other. That Lord Balfour, 
however ignorant he may have been of real conditions in the 
near east, was in some measure learning the lesson of the 
tactical error of the declaration that goes by his name is sug- 

—362— 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


gested by his words uttered at a mass meeting in the Albert 
Hall, July 12, 1920, expressing the hope that the Arabs may 
not “ grudge that small niche in what are now Arab terri¬ 
tories being given to the people who for all these hundreds 
of years have been separated from it.” 16 

In 1922 the British Colonial office issued a White Paper 
giving a statement of British policy in Palestine, declaring 
that “ the terms of the (Balfour) Declaration ... do not 
contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted 
into a Jewish national home, but that such a home should be 
founded in Palestine. . . . When it is asked what is meant 
by the development of the Jewish national home in Palestine, 
it may be answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish 
nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole, but 
the further development of the existing Jewish community 
... in order that it may become a centre in which the Jewish 
people as a whole may take, on grounds of religion and race, 
an interest and a pride. . . . For the fulfillment of this policy 
it is necessary that the Jewish community in Palestine should 
be able to increase its numbers by immigration.” 

Neither the Zionists nor the Arabs were satisfied with 
conditions nor with the attempts of the British administra¬ 
tion to interpret its equivocal attitude. There were repeated 
outbreaks. The problem of creating self-governing institu¬ 
tions was the cause of much conflict. From 1920 to 1922 
there was no legislature. A nominated Advisory Council of 
ten British officials, four Moslem Arabs, three Christian 
Arabs and two Jews aided the administration. In 1922 the 
High Commissioner tried to introduce a constitution provid- 

16 Cf. The Great Betrayal, by Stephen S. Wise and Jacob de Haas, p. 46. 

—363— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


ing for a legislative council of ten official members, eight 
Moslems, two Christians and two Jews. The Palestine Zion¬ 
ist Executive approved of the proposal. The Executive of the 
Palestine Arab Congress opposed it because the draft constitu¬ 
tion was based on the Balfour declaration which they dis¬ 
approved as prejudicial to their interests and to Palestinian 
national hopes and contrary to the League and the Hague 
covenants; also because the Arabs feared that the official 
members might combine with the Jews against the Arabs; 
and finally because they considered that the High Commis¬ 
sioner’s powers would be excessive. 

The proposed constitution was abandoned because the 
Arabs boycotted the elections. The Advisory Council could 
not be restored because the nationalists forced the resigna¬ 
tion of the Arabs appointed to it. In 1923, the Arabs re¬ 
jected proposals for an Arab agency corresponding to the 
Jewish agency. Since then the government of Palestine has 
been carried on directly by the British administration. The 
sentiment of non-Jews in Palestine was illustrated when in 
1925 Lord Balfour visited Jerusalem to open officially the 
University. On that occasion every non-Jewish shop in the 
city was closed in protest against his presence. There was 
no rioting, but the situation was very tense. On every anni¬ 
versary of the Balfour declaration there has been a Jewish 
celebration and a hostile Arab demonstration and protest 
strike until 1930. 

As a result of the Balfour declaration there was an im¬ 
mediate movement of Jews to Palestine. From 1922 to 1928 
the population increased rapidly. Most of the immigrants 
settled in the towns. They have bought all land privately at 

—364 — 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


high rates from Arab owners. In 1927, there were 104 Jewish 
agricultural settlements, of which 50 were Zionist colonies. 
Jews hold about a quarter of a million acres of land of which 
only 37.2 per cent is under actual cultivation. Overhead ex¬ 
penses in many of the settlements are high. Only eight of 
the Zionist agricultural settlements were self-supporting in 
1929. Zionists complain that the agricultural population paid 
too large a share of the taxes and that the government did not 
make a proportionate return in subsidies for education and 
public health work, though the subsidy for education has 
been increased to “ approximately the full share due ” for 
Jewish education. In both health and education the govern¬ 
ment’s policy has been to spend as large a proportion as pos¬ 
sible on the more needy Arab majority. Jews have com¬ 
plained of the lack of protection for Jews in view of Arab 
hostility. 

All these events and conditions led logically and perhaps 
inevitably to the Wailing Wall episode of August 23, 1929. 
It will be remembered that on September 24,1928 during the 
services for the Day of Atonement the police forcibly re¬ 
moved a temporary screen erected to separate the sexes. The 
British administration is responsible for “preserving exist¬ 
ing rights ” at the holy places. Jews were further aroused by 
the fact that Moslems were allowed to erect a building within 
the enclosure beyond the Wailing Wall and to cut a doorway 
in another section of the wall. The Wailing Wall question 
had become both a political and a religious issue. The two 
great Jewish and Moslem celebrations fell on August 15 and 
16 in that year so that great numbers of Jews and Moslems 
were in Jerusalem at the same time. Rioting occurred at the 

—365 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Wailing Wall in which Jews were killed and there were at¬ 
tacks on the Jews throughout the country in which blood was 
shed at Hebron, Safed, and elsewhere. Naturally the fight¬ 
ing was not all on one side. The Jews defended themselves 
as well as they could. In some cases they were the aggres¬ 
sors. There was a small demonstration by young “ radicals ” 
from Tel-Aviv coming to Jerusalem. Then the silly rumor 
spread among all the Arab settlements that the Jews had 
marched on the Mosque of Omar and that the streets of Jaffa 
were running in Moslem blood. It was a totally tragic and 
unnecessary series of incidents. The fact that companies of 
Arabs from across the Jordan were in the city heightened the 
confusion and increased the tension. 

A commission was appointed in January to investigate 
the event, with Sir Walter Shaw as chairman. The com¬ 
mission consisted of four Englishmen, appointed by the for¬ 
eign office in London, with full recognition of the difficult 
task ahead, and the necessity of choosing men of diplomatic 
experience and acknowledged impartiality. They sat for 
many days during January in Jerusalem. Before them ap¬ 
peared people of every sort who had been summoned or who 
felt themselves competent to give evidence bearing on the 
matters involved. Practically every phase of the Zionist-Arab 
embroglio was brought out: the causes and incidents of the 
riots of August, the number of people injured and of which 
race, the nature of the promises made to the Jews and the 
Arabs respectively, the nature and history of Jewish claim to 
possession and privilege at the Wailing Wall, the Moslem in¬ 
sistence on their possession of this spot, the question whether 
the Jews made good farmers, the grounds of Jewish claims 

-366- 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


to have reduced malaria, whether the Arab peasants are being 
left sufficient lands for cultivation, the nature of the commer¬ 
cial rights secured by the Zionists, and many other questions 
related to the situation. 

The commission made its report at the end of March. It 
declared that the outbreak in Jerusalem was “ from beginning 
to end an attack by the Arabs on the Jews, for which no ex¬ 
cuse in the form of earlier murders by the Jews has been es¬ 
tablished.” On the other hand it added, “ It is our belief that 
the feeling of resentment among Palestine Arabs, consequent 
upon their disappointment at their continued failure to ob¬ 
tain any measure of self-government, greatly aggravated the 
difficulties of the local administration.” And further that the 
special position, assigned to the Zionist body by the mandate, 
does not entitle it to share in any degree in the government 
of Palestine. 

As might have been anticipated, that report was satis¬ 
factory neither to Jews nor Arabs. The Zionist organs were 
bitter in their denunciation of the report as “ a concession to 
criminality,” and the Arabs found in it a leaning to Jewish 
interests quite inconsistent with the pledges made to their 
people by Great Britain in the days when British interests at 
the canal demanded Arab assistance in meeting the German- 
Turkish advance. Could the Shaw commission come nearer 
to a satisfactory solution of the problem ? Not with the back¬ 
ground of a mistaken British policy and of contradictory as¬ 
surances given to the two races. 

It is this equivocal position in which the British govern¬ 
ment stands in regard to Palestine which is the source of con¬ 
stant unrest and friction in the country, and will continue to 

—367— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


encourage the population, in spite of all British police force, 
to periodic outbreaks of racial violence. The suggestion of 
the commission that the government “ clarify its stand in the 
Balfour declaration ” provided an embarrassing item in the 
report. For it is exactly that attempt to “ clarify ” the atti¬ 
tude of any government, labor, conservative or liberal, toward 
the administration of Palestine affairs which will cause an out¬ 
burst of anger on the part of the unfavored group, and lead 
to further trouble. It is rather the part of diplomacy to avoid 
any decision, and let matters worry along in their vague and 
confused plight, passing on the responsibility of action to 
future commissions and cabinets. 

In September 1930 the mandates commission of the 
League of Nations issued from Geneva a report which dealt 
in part with the Palestine troubles, insisting that the Arab 
uprising was not primarily an attack upon the Jews, but “ a 
movement of resistance to the policy of the manditory power; 
that it has failed to carry out the terms of the Mandate, the 
establishment of a Jewish national home, and the safeguard¬ 
ing of Arab interests by the development of self-governing 
institutions.” It is not difficult to perceive the embarrass¬ 
ment in which the British government is placed. While 
neither Zionists nor Arabs can claim that the pledges made 
them had the authority of Parliament behind them, both in¬ 
sist, and rightly insist, that the promises were official and 
binding. Committed thus alike to the Zionists, who have 
gone forward with great courage and sacrifice to take ad¬ 
vantage of the situation, and to the Arabs, who have waited 
with growing impatience for the downfall of the Turkish 
intruders and the realization of their racial hopes, the British 

-368- 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


administration, varying in its sentiments from one cabinet to 
the next, is confronted with one of the most sensitive and per¬ 
plexing problems encountered by any nation in modern 
times. 

It is not willing to retract the Balfour declaration, on 
the ground both of political consistency and of a large body 
of public opinion favorable to the Jews and their aspirations; 
on the other hand it has no desire to increase the resentment 
of that immense Arab population, whose good will is im¬ 
portant in the safeguarding of the canal and in preserving 
friendly relations with the seventy millions of Moslems in 
India. On the side of the Arabs lie the preponderant con¬ 
siderations of numbers, restless ambition, fighting ability and 
religious fanaticism. No careful observer of near east affairs 
can doubt that the attitude of British officialism is much more 
favorable to the Moslem population of Palestine and the 
neighboring states than to the Jews. For this there are several 
reasons, but the chief is always the welfare and the future of 
the empire. This attitude is recognized by the Zionist leaders, 
and is the cause of much uneasiness. Nor is there any means 
of justifying it by argument. It is simply to be reckoned 
with. If compelled to choose between these opposing in¬ 
terests, it is not too much to say that the official view both in 
England and Palestine would favor the placation of Arab 
irritation and the relegation of Jewish interests to the back¬ 
ground. From the British point of view the most important 
question is the control of the most direct lines of communica¬ 
tion with India, although matters of prestige and economic 
advantage also have weight. British statesmen are wise and 
experienced enough to avoid siding with either the Zionists 

—369 — 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


or the Arabs openly. But they will find means, as they al¬ 
ways have in such emergencies, of delaying decisions and 
allowing events to take their own course. Does this not really 
mean siding with the Arabs, who can afford to wait, as the 
Zionists cannot, for the realization of their objectives ? 

It was a part of the recommendation of the Shaw com¬ 
mission that the government of Great Britain clarify its in¬ 
terpretation of the Balfour declaration and its contemplated 
policy regarding Palestine, and this was the promise of 
Premier MacDonald made on April 3. Accordingly on Octo¬ 
ber 20, 1930 the colonial office issued its report, made by Sir 
John Hope Simpson, together with a White Paper setting 
forth the future policy of the government regarding that 
country, and authorized by Lord Passfield (Sydney Webb), 
secretary for the colonies. It set forth the disadvantages 
under which the Arab peasants were living both as to land 
and labor conditions, praised the Zionist organization for cer¬ 
tain features of its work and criticized others, and proposed 
a new form of governmental machinery to give larger scope 
for the principle of self-determination in the case of the dif¬ 
ferent racial groups. Among the chief items were the neces¬ 
sity of limiting strictly the immigration of Jews until such 
time as capacity of the country to absorb them was demon¬ 
strated. The document was long and detailed. It is worthy 
of careful study for its wealth of fact and its balance of judg¬ 
ment. It is an able statement made in the face of great dif¬ 
ficulties and a tense situation. 

The reception it met on the part of Zionists in Palestine, 
England and the United States was most hostile. The Jewish 
National Council in Jerusalem voted unanimously to reject 


—370— 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


the statement of policy and to refuse participation in the pro¬ 
posed legislative council. 17 Dr. Chaim Weizmann, presi¬ 
dent of the International Zionist movement, resigned in 
protest, as did Lord Malchett. The American Jewish Con¬ 
gress on October 20 denounced it as a repudiation of the sol¬ 
emn pledge given by the British government to the Jewish 
people. Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the administrative 
committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, resigned from 
that office. In the Zionist press the document was referred to 
as “ the execrable White Paper.” In British Parliamentary 
circles tory leaders, like Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Chamberlain, 
denounced the government for what they termed its anti- 
Jewish attitude. This was regarded by many, however, as a 
political effort to embarrass the Labor cabinet. 18 

Conscious that the official statement and the White 
Paper of October 20 had deeply stirred Zionists circles, Pre¬ 
mier MacDonald, on February 13, 1931, issued a pronounce¬ 
ment in a letter to Dr. Chaim Weizmann disclaiming any in¬ 
jurious allegations on the part of the government against the 

17 The Arab executive committee in Jerusalem on November 2 voted to 
adopt a favorable attitude toward the British Palestine policy, although the 
Grand Mufti vigorously opposed the action. 

18 On the other hand the eminent conservative, Lord Islington, said, 

“ The Moslem world is at least as important to Great Britain as American 
Jewry.” He described the Zionist home as a dangerous and expensive failure. 
He said that it is impossible to create a Jewish home in a country where for 
centuries 85 per cent of the population are Arabs holding tenaciously to their 
religion. The Daily Mail commended the government for its one sensible act 
in recent months, and added: “The Balfour declaration was only one of many 
contradictory promises given by the Allies during the war. In 1915 they promised 
the Arabs a government of their own; in 1917 came the Balfour declaration, 
made casually without consulting parliament or the nation; in 1918 there was 
to be a self-governing Arab state under British supervision. Millions of British 
money have been spent to uphold the Balfour declaration, only resulting in 
world-wide damage to British prestige.” 


—371 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Jewish people, and affirming an early purpose to ascertain 
what state and other lands were available for settlement by 
the Jews, and its obligation to facilitate Jewish immigration 
according to the absorptive capacity of the country, and to 
encourage settlement of Jews on land; a promise, he said, 
which must be fulfilled without prejudice to the rights and 
position of other sections of the population. Other state¬ 
ments were made and the document as a whole was regarded 
as making concessions to the Jews beyond the limits of the 
White Paper. Dr. Weizmann expressed his satisfaction with 
it. Yet this declaration did not commit the government to 
the conversion of Palestine into a Jewish state of the type 
desired by the extreme Zionists. And it was certain to arouse 
fresh Arab protests. It was no surprise therefore to learn 
that within a month the Arab executive in Jerusalem had de¬ 
clared a boycott on the Jews in Palestine. Further a formal 
protest was issued by them in April citing a long list of 
grievances, and demanding to be given self-government ac¬ 
cording to the population without fear or favor; to be given 
an equal chance with the other inhabitants to develop the 
country; to be able to maintain all their land rights as under 
the old system; that their religious rights be not interfered 
with; and that there should be no Zionist domination in their 
own country. 

On June 8 a commission appointed in the previous year, 
under the direction of the League of Nations to determine 
the status of the Wailing Wall, reported that the sole owner¬ 
ship of the wall and the pavement in front of it lay with the 
Moslems, but that the Jews might have free access to the wall 
for devotions at all times subject to certain stipulations re- 


— 37 2 — 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


garding the use of appurtenances of worship, most of which 
are allowed only on special occasions. The secretary of the 
Palestine Arab Executive board and Chief Rabbi Sonnenfeld 
expressed their approval of the decision. The Grand Mufti, 
however, insisted that it was unfair to the Moslems as deny¬ 
ing them the unfettered privileges to which they had hitherto 
been entitled. It would seem that in this verdict of the com¬ 
mission there should be a basis of settlement for at least one 
of the outstanding points of friction between the two racial 
groups. 

Other recent events in the near east have been of interest 
to those concerned in Palestine problems. There had been 
open feud between Feisal, king of Iraq, and Ibn Saud, the 
powerful ruler of the Hijaz and the Nejd. This had con¬ 
tinued since 1924 when Husein, then ruler of the Hijaz and 
father of Feisal and Abdullah, proclaimed himself caliph of 
all Islam. Ibn Saud at that time declared open revolt, 
and in two years drove the Husein family out of Arabia. 
Through the good offices of Sir Francis Humphrey, British 
High Commissioner of Iraq, Feisal and Ibn Saud met on a 
British war ship in the Persian Gulf and came to amicable 
terms. This left the two sons of Husein undisturbed in their 
provinces, Feisal in Iraq and Abdullah in Transjordania, and 
gave Ibn Saud leisure to pursue his plans for the consolida¬ 
tion of the various Arab states. His immediate step in that 
direction was the effort to control the Hijaz railroad, the pil¬ 
grim route to Mecca. This he regards as a religious trust, as 
it was built with contributions from Moslems in all lands. 
In 1921 he received an annual subsidy from the British gov¬ 
ernment of ;£ 100,000. This is presumably continued. In 


—373 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


May 1930 the United States extended full recognition to his 
dual kingdom of Hijaz and Nejd together with their de¬ 
pendencies in the Arabian peninsula. This includes a terri¬ 
tory of 700,000 square miles, with a population of five mil¬ 
lions. 

Mecca is the capital, as it is the sacred city of the 
Moslem world. But of late a decided movement has been 
launched to transfer the center of Islam from Mecca to Jeru¬ 
salem, as more accessible and almost equally sacred to Mos¬ 
lems. With this end in view a Moslem university is to be 
established there, for which large contributions have been 
made by the various states of Islam. In these plans Ibn 
Saud is deeply concerned. His ambitious projects can hardly 
fail to extend to Palestine, with what results it remains to be 
seen. This might lead to his own ultimate election to the 
caliphate. Failing in this, either of the two sons of Husein 
might be his candidate, as they are closely connected with the 
Prophet’s line. King Husein, their father, died in exile in 
Cyprus in 1930. Two of his sons, Ali and Zeid were with 
him. Feisal and Abdullah attempted in vain to reach his bed¬ 
side by airplane. There are other aspirants to the caliphate, 
among them the former caliph and sultan of Turkey, Abdul 
Mejid, now in retirement on the Riviera; Mustapha Kemal 
Pasha, president of Turkey, who holds the relics of the 
Prophet; and the former khedive of Egypt, perhaps the 
wealthiest of Moslems. The all-Islam Congress, which last 
met in Mecca in 1926, will be the body to decide the ques¬ 
tion of the caliphate. The claim of Abdul Mejid was 
strengthened in November 1931 by the marriage of his 
daughter to the eldest son of the powerful Nizam of Hydera- 


—374 — 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


bad, and of his niece, the granddaughter of the late Sultan 
Murad V to the younger son of the Nizam. 

At the conclusion of the five year period of the High 
Commissionership of Palestine and Transjordania in 1925, Sir 
Herbert Samuel was succeeded in that office by Field Mar¬ 
shall Lord Plumer. The third official in this succession was 
Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Chancellor, and on July 13, 
1931 Lieutenant General A. E. Wauchope was appointed to 
the place. With the office of High Commissioner goes also 
that of Commander-in-Chief. The Deputy District Com¬ 
missioner, Mr. E. Keith-Roach, is virtually the chief official in 
Jerusalem, although there is a nominal mayor. 

From what has been said it is evident that the problem of 
Palestine’s future is many-sided and perplexing. There are 
Zionists of the radical type in Palestine and elsewhere who 
regard the land as theirs by inheritance; who look with dis¬ 
dain on the Arab population, and speak of them as “red 
Indians ” who are not to be considered in the carrying out of 
the Balfour declaration, who use constantly the term Eretz 
Israel (the land of Israel) in speaking of Palestine, uncon¬ 
scious of, or indifferent to, its fallacy and its deeply irritat¬ 
ing effect; and who talk loosely of being “able to buy any 
Arab in the land.” In reality whole sections of Lon¬ 
don, Berlin, Vienna, New York, Chicago and other cities 
are far more truly Eretz Israel than Palestine is or ever 
can be. 

The chief complaint of this class of Jews is with the Brit¬ 
ish government that it does not fulfill its promise to provide 
the Jews a “ homeland in Palestine,” and that it has not af¬ 
forded adequate protection to the Jews in the times of Arab 


—375 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


assaults. It must be kept in mind that no police force which 
the British government could provide would be adequate to 
pacify an aroused and fanatical Arab population in all the 
neighboring lands, particularly when fired by loose propa¬ 
ganda and malicious rumors. Some of the more ardent 
Zionists go so far as to insist that there should be two thou¬ 
sand additional Jewish immigrants admitted within five 
years, and they are outraged that thus far permits for only 
1200 have been secured. Nor are these Zionists of the radical 
sort necessarily adherents of Judaism either orthodox or 
liberal. Very many of them are out-and-out infidels. Their 
interest in Zionism is political rather than religious. 

On the other hand there are among the Arabs equally 
radical views in regard to the Zionists and their rights in the 
land. They resent any Jewish claims to be the “ chosen peo¬ 
ple ” or to hold any title to the land comparable to that of 
the Moslems. They charge that the British administration in 
Palestine is controlled by the Jewish agency, that the land 
management is unjust to them, that most of the economic 
concessions have been given to Jews, and that in general their 
situation was more favorable under the Turkish regime. 
Such views have been freely expressed in the various Arab 
congresses that have been held in recent years, such as the All 
Palestine Arab Congress, the Women’s Congress, the Stu¬ 
dents’ Congress, the Villagers’ Congress, and the Arab Eco¬ 
nomic Congress held in Haifa in November 1929. There 
are answers to these complaints on both sides. The point is 
that there are these sharp differences, and as the Wailing Wall 
commission affirmed, “unless the differences between the 
two races are settled, there is no prospect of successful realiza- 

—376— 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


tion of Jewish projects nor progressive development of the 
Arab people.” 

There is a more moderate opinion, to the effect that Zion¬ 
ism will proceed with its program, and by continued contri¬ 
butions of funds, labor and initiative it will win through at 
last to its great objectives. Enthusiastic and courageous Zion¬ 
ists are insistent that in accordance with the program formu¬ 
lated by their leaders the land will be occupied gradually by 
members of their race intent on the realization of the material 
and spiritual ideals of their people. As they view the matter, 
the Arab population, now some four-fifths of the inhabitants, 
will increasingly appreciate the advantage of having these 
thrifty, industrious, progressive people as their neighbors, and 
make room for them. They believe that Palestine is capable 
of supporting a population many times the size of that now 
living there. They think that improved methods of agricul¬ 
ture, irrigation and engineering will rapidly develop the pres¬ 
ent modest if not meagre resources of the country, and that 
in time the Jewish element in the population will come to 
dominate both in numbers and political control. In this 
manner the dream of a homeland for the Jews is to come true. 

Improved methods of agriculture and fruit production 
will bring the economic resources of the land to higher values. 
This will benefit both the Jewish and the Arab population. 
It must be remembered that few of the experiments made 
have become commercially profitable as yet. Some of the 
colonies have yielded a profit. Others are and will continue 
to be dependent on Zionist funds provided from abroad. 
This is equally true of much of the improvement achieved in 
other directions, such as roads, industries, education and other 


— 377 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


institutional and social experiments. For these purposes large 
sums of money have been supplied by Jews from Europe and 
America in a spirit of splendid generosity. It is said that al¬ 
most $34,000,000 has been spent by the Zionist organization 
for the reconstruction of Palestine since the Balfour declara¬ 
tion was issued. Can this large income to Zionist treasuries 
be counted on indefinitely ? The prices paid for the land are 
high, much higher than the value of the property warrants in 
many instances. Yet the Jews desire the land, and the Arabs 
covet the price. Complaints are made of the threatened bank¬ 
ruptcy of Zionist organizations. Will the Jews of the out¬ 
lying world maintain the same spirit of devotion and sacri¬ 
fice in the future which has characterized the years of 
enthusiastic promotion of the Zionist ideal ? If so and Zion¬ 
ism succeeds on its proposed lines it will be recognized as one 
of the major achievements of history. 

Others among the Jewish people believe that the obstacles 
in its way, physical, economic and political, are insuperable, 
and that with the gradually increasing restrictions to Jewish 
immigration which are already drastic, the entire movement 
will take its place among the episodes of the centuries. 

It must be kept in mind that there are great numbers of 
Jews in many parts of the world who are in a general way 
sympathetic with the aspiration of their race and are willing 
to contribute to funds for the care of pensioner Jews in Pales¬ 
tine and for the rehabilitation of the land, who are not much 
concerned with the eager ambitions of Zionists for a national 
homeland. They feel that Palestine ought to be open and 
hospitable to Jew and non-Jew alike, and that the heroic 
and sacrificial service which many Jews have rendered to the 

—378— 




Jew and Arab in Palestine 


country and to their people is worthy of the fullest recogni¬ 
tion and praise. They have the conviction voiced in states¬ 
manlike utterances by representative Jews that the Balfour 
declaration should not be given the extravagant interpreta¬ 
tion which the political Zionists have given it. For example 
Chancellor Magnes says that, “ Palestine is a land sui generis, 
sacred to three great religions; it should always be under in¬ 
ternational control through a mandatory. This is probably 
the only way for safeguarding international obligations here, 
and of guaranteeing to all elements of the population — the 
majority as well as the minorities — their equal rights and 
privileges, including immigration, settlement on the land, 
and the living of a free cultural life.” 

It is a satisfaction to observe the efforts which are being 
made toward a better understanding between Jews and Arabs 
in Palestine. The council of the Jewish agency for Pales¬ 
tine meeting in Basle in 1930 went on record unanimously as 
having a “ sincere desire for the creation of a durable under¬ 
standing between Jews and Arabs in Palestine on the basis of 
mutual confidence and respect.” The hope has been ex¬ 
pressed that the University in Jerusalem may render valuable 
service by its equal opportunities offered to Jews and Arabs, 
and that in the classrooms a new basis of understanding may 
be found. Interesting suggestions have been made regarding 
the cantonization of Palestine on the basis of local majorities, 
which units might have representation in a congress or parlia¬ 
ment under the mandate power. But most constructive of all 
have been the utterances of such Zionist leaders as Chancellor 
Magnes and Professor Einstein, that the first and greatest 
task of Zionism is the cultivation of amicable relations with 


— 379 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


the Arabs who are their neighbors, and must be their co¬ 
operants in the rehabilitation and development of Palestine. 

That land is equally dear to Christians, Jews and Mos¬ 
lems. Its holy places are alike cherished by the confessors 
of the three faiths. It must ever remain open and hospitable 
to them and to all others who desire to visit it. Its political 
status, whether British, Jewish, Arab or international must 
be such as to guarantee the rights of all who come and go. 
The Jews have, and must always have, the same privileges ac¬ 
corded to all who wish to travel or to reside in the land. Can 
they ask for more ? As a race and a religion, do they wish 
for more ? 

There is another aspect of the matter which demands a 
word. Many Zionists insist that Israel’s ethical and spiritual 
message to the world can never be delivered adequately until 
the Jews have a local habitation as well as a name. Thus 
they believe that the possession of Palestine is not for the 
purpose of dislodging its present population, which would be 
impossible, nor as a homeland in the sense of an actual resi¬ 
dence for any considerable proportion of their race, which 
would be a fantastic expectation; but rather as a symbol of 
Jewish ideals, a place where Jews might live in safety and in¬ 
dependence, carrying on their mission of good will and 
brotherhood, and thus pervading the world with their racial 
aims. This is a noble and worthy ambition. But is the pos¬ 
session of Palestine necessary to any such moral and religious 
leadership as the best Jews rightly crave? Many of their 
leaders believe otherwise. They are of the opinion that it 
would be a distinct step backward, a retreat from the world¬ 
wide platform of Judaism to the doubtful and difficult adven- 

—380 — 





Jew and Arab in Palestine 


ture of geographical and political struggle. Might it not 
actually lose some of the authority it enjoyed when it stood 
unhampered by any political responsibilities? It is for the 
thoughtful to say. But surely it is a fair question whether 
Judaism, now a religious power of unquestioned vitality and 
dominion in wide areas of human life, would gain or lose by 
involvement in the ever-changing and ever-baffling Palestine 
problem. 19 

As long as the Jews were the victims of persecution and 
outrage in the lands of their occupation it was inevitable that 
they should dream of a homeland where they might be at 
peace and work out their cultural and religious ideals. But 
the new world of today is open to them with growing free¬ 
dom and opportunity. The Jew is respected and honored 
in all the regions where he has exhibited his powers in the 
fields of industry, commerce, politics, art and literature. 
Does he really desire to possess a small, poverty-stricken 
and unresourceful land like Palestine which is already so 
largely in the possession of another race? The Jews are a 
practical people, perhaps the most practical in the world. Is 
the remaking of Palestine a practicable enterprise ? Perhaps 
it is. It is a question for them to decide. No one else has any 
right of decision or any special interest in the question, save 
on grounds of sentiment. 

19 Rabbi Silver writes: “Two thousand years of heroic suffering and 
martyrdom cannot find their compensation in the right to play the role of a 
pitifully small State in the World of political intrigue, a pawn in the hands of 
scheming international diplomats.” — The Democratic Impulse in Jewish History, 
p. 25. 


-381- 



XIII 

THE JEW TODAY AND TOMORROW 

Of no other race is the world so conscious as of the Jews. 
They are the universal people, found in almost every land, 
and marked by characteristics which draw the attention of 
those among whom they live. These are sometimes marks of 
a physical type, but more frequently mannerisms and forms 
of speech. There are other racial groups which are more dis¬ 
tinctively recognized in certain parts of the world, and in a 
measure set apart either by popular approval or dislike, as in 
the case of orientals on the Pacific coast, or Negroes in por¬ 
tions of the United States, or the nationals of any country 
that has been the victim of war prejudice, like the Japanese 
in China, the Americans in Europe in the days of the Span¬ 
ish War, or the Germans in any of the allied lands. 

But the Jew is recognized wherever he goes. This recog¬ 
nition is sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, but it 
tends to be universal. In some instances the Jew is proud of 
the place he holds in the world’s regard, whether it is that 
of approval or of dislike, and sometimes he is deeply sensi¬ 
tive to the sentiment of aversion which many of his people 
excite. In the latter instances he may attempt to hide his 
racial status by change of name or by taking refuge in non- 
Jewish groups into which he is able to gain admission, or he 
may be indifferent to other than Jewish opinion, finding 
ample compensation in the consciousness of his history and 

—382— 


The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


culture, and the importance of the place he holds in the life 
of the world. Whatever else may be true of the Jews, they 
are the universal race, found in all lands and represented in 
nearly all the vocations and avocations of humanity. 

Of certain claims often made in reference to them there 
are no proofs, and intelligent Jews are increasingly aware of 
the fact. The first is the assumption of the Hebraic origin 
of the Jews; another is that of their racial purity. The facts 
regarding these claims have been set forth in previous chap¬ 
ters. The Jew has made himself and the world believe in 
his derivation from the Hebrew stock, in the fact that bibli¬ 
cal references are made to his future restoration to Palestine, 
and in the purity and integrity of his blood inheritance. In 
these claims he has been supported by uncritical and senti¬ 
mental Christian opinion. For none of them is there a 
basis of fact. Yet in regard to these assumptions the Jew has 
nothing to regret. His descent from the late and decadent 
Hebrew life of Judah in the fifth century before the present 
era would have been nothing to his credit, and indeed would 
have proved a handicap. There are no biblical texts which 
refer to the present or future generation of Jews, or their 
political prospects. 

And as for purity of blood, no scholar, Jewish or 
other, would affirm that either at the beginning of the 
Jewish state or at any time since has the race been of un¬ 
mixed stock. In fact one of the chief elements of its vigor 
and genius has been the constant intermixture of many 
strains in its life. Most races which have had any degree 
of world contact have revealed the same pattern of mingled 
racial elements — Egyptians, Hebrews, Hindus, Greeks, Ro- 

— 383 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


mans, Europeans of most groups, and most of all, Americans. 
But none compare with the Jews, whose life has been cast 
in many lands, and has been subjected to every form of 
racial misadventure and oppression. That their survival has 
been possible is one of the miracles of history. The entire 
story of the Jew has been one of suffering and heroism which 
merits the admiration and good will of mankind, and above 
all other groups, of Christians. The words of Frederick 
Hosmer’s noble hymn may well be paraphrased in reference 
to the Jew: 

“For thee the fathers suffered, for thee they toiled and prayed; 

Upon thy holy altar their willing lives they laid; 

Thou hast no common birthright, great memories on thee shine; 

The blood of all the nations commingled flows in thine.” 

As Felix Adler, himself a Jew, has rightly said, the high¬ 
bred members of the race reveal “ noble qualities in ver¬ 
satility of thought, brilliancy of imagination, flashing humor, 
in what the French call esprit; in powerful lyrical outpour¬ 
ings, in impassioned eloquence, in the power of experiencing 
and uttering profound emotions.” In these and many other 
characteristics of high order the Jew shows himself to be a 
member of a universal race. 

The Jewish claims referred to — those of Hebrew origin, 
of biblical predictive status, and of purity of stock — are of 
no particular importance so far as world opinion is con¬ 
cerned. Their factual or fictional nature is merely a matter 
of historical and scientific inquiry. No one has any 
controversy with those Jews who find satisfaction in such 
claims. It is on wholly different grounds that their signifi- 

—384— 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


cance and value as a people rest, and these grounds of cul¬ 
ture, industry, morality and religion afford them the right 
to an ample place in the appreciation and good will of 
mankind. 

Jews reveal the traits both physical and mental of al¬ 
most every people and culture. Scattered widely as they 
have been for centuries, they have absorbed many of the 
characteristics of those among whom they have lived. Held 
together in a remarkable relationship by group loyalty, by 
historic traditions and by differing degrees of religious fidel¬ 
ity, they have naturally imbibed many of the elements of 
their local environments, such as language, national or re¬ 
gional patterns of thinking and behavior, vocational and 
trade characteristics. Through all variations of distribution, 
culture and experience they maintain everywhere certain re¬ 
markable resemblances which are distinguishing and often 
unmistakable. These are not necessarily facial. It is often 
affirmed that one can tell a Jew on sight. This is of course 
an exaggeration. There are many Jews who show not the 
slightest trace of racial peculiarity. Nor is it possible to 
identify Jews by any specific features, such as noses, eyes, 
hair, facial contour, complexion or other tokens. In many 
instances one or more of these marks may be present. In 
many others no one of them is observed. And yet the racial 
signs are unmistakable. No physiognomist has ever been 
able to point out the definite and invariable fashion of 
a Jewish face. Yet in most instances they are not diffi¬ 
cult of identification. It would seem that this racial resem¬ 
blance is less a quality of physical pattern than of manner, 
speech and disposition, variable as these may be. As in the 

-385- 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


case of other races they tend to disappear by contact and ab¬ 
sorption with other groups. 1 

If there are distinct differences between Jews and the 
people of other racial strains, not less marked are the varia¬ 
tions among themselves. These differences are of every sort, 
physiological, regional, social, economic, educational, re¬ 
ligious. The Sephardic Jew in Europe has held a certain 
level of aristocracy. In America he has been the poorest 
and the least fortunate of his people. The Jew of the Aske- 
nazim group on the other hand has belonged to the lower 
stratum of population in Europe, but by his energy and 
thrift has prospered in the United States. And between the 
two groups on either continent there has been little affec¬ 
tion. In fact there is no prejudice more intense than that 
which is exhibited by certain groups of Jews toward other 
Jews, such as that felt by German Jews toward those of east¬ 
ern Europe, or that displayed by many Orthodox Jews toward 
those of modernist views, or that of the radical Zionists 
toward those of the race who are indifferent to that ad¬ 
venture. In some cases this results from an inferiority com¬ 
plex; in others it is the issue of deep-going differences in 
conviction. 

Jews are of many sorts, some of them well-bred, cul¬ 
tured and pleasing in manners, and others ignorant, rude, 
arrogant and disagreeable. Many of the latter class hardly 
realize how unfavorable is the impression they make. It is 
fortunate that in a free social order like that of the United 
States a man may rise from the ghetto to a boulevard in a 
single generation. But even this change does not always 

1 See pages 20, 158, 159. 

-386- 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


involve the disappearance of his ghetto characteristics. 
Too often he retains unconsciously the peculiarities of the 
immigrant—-language, manners and modes of thinking. 
Unfortunately, it is those who are most objectionable in 
their manners who attract attention and create an unfavor¬ 
able opinion regarding the race in general. In this respect 
they are like some types of Americans traveling in Europe. 
As one of them writes, “ certain tendencies among the un¬ 
educated and illiterate give rise to unlovely and unpleasant 
idiosyncrasies, a certain restlessness, loudness of manner, 
fondness of display, a lack of dignity, reserve, repose. 
And since one loud person attracts greater attention than 
twenty who are modest and refined, it has come about 
that the whole race is often condemned because of the 
follies of some of the coarsest and least representative of its 
members.” 

One recalls many varieties of Jews, as different one 
from another as though they belonged to different races. 
There are the typical Jews of the Whitechapel Road section 
of London. There are the crowds of noisy and gesticulating 
Jews from the East Side, who pour out from clothing fac¬ 
tories in side streets into Fifth Avenue at the noon-hour and 
fill all that section of New York with their clamor. There 
are those who constitute the ghetto types of Philadelphia, 
Boston, Cincinnati and St. Louis, and whose market areas 
seem like bits of busy life transported from Frankfort, 
Vienna or Moscow. There is the Chicago Jewry in the old 
Maxwell Street district, now moving gradually into North 
Lawndale. There are the loud-voiced commercial Jews one 
sees in the smoking compartments of Pullman coaches, 

—387— 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


whose conversation deals only in sums running into 
the millions, even if there is the suspicion that a hun¬ 
dred dollars would tax their resources. There are the 
aggressive, pushful Jews, whose chief ambition appears to be 
to invade residence sections and hotels where they are un¬ 
welcome, and who will adopt any means, however dishonest 
or offensive, to accomplish their object. There is the Jew 
whose aggressive qualities have made him the master of 
wide reaches of the industrial and commercial world. Ar¬ 
riving in the steerage, he found a place as janitor in a New 
York structure, and his growing family did sweatshop work 
for a clothing firm. In a few years he had become the pos¬ 
sessor of the building, and of several adjacent buildings. 
Today his children and those of other Jews are the masters 
of whole sections of the business of the United States — the 
clothing trade, the department stores, the theatrical busi¬ 
ness, the moving picture industry and a score of other enter¬ 
prises, to say nothing of a majority share in the teaching 
activity of the public schools of several cities, and in some 
places even the invasion of the police force, in which the 
Irish have been supposed to hold a monopoly. 

On the other hand, the Jew of the educated type, whether 
in business or the professions, exhibits an order of culture 
and refinement which makes him a valuable citizen and a 
delightful companion. The Jewish rabbis are on the aver¬ 
age superior in educational equipment and in continuing 
scholarship to any other class of religious leaders, Protestant 
or Catholic. The philanthropies of high-minded Jews, not 
only in behalf of their own people but in the interest of all 
good causes — educational, civic, benevolent, religious — 

-388- 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


have given them a place of esteem in the regard of the citi¬ 
zenship of Europe and America. 

Probably in no field are the ambition and persistence of 
Jews more in evidence than in that of education. In every 
grade of school from the primary to the university Jewish 
boys and girls, encouraged by ambitious parents, are eager 
seekers for entrance and earnest in their pursuit of excel¬ 
lence. In fact this has become the cause of alarm on the 
part of college and university officials. The popular preju¬ 
dice against the Jew has subjected him to every form of 
repression in his quest for education. To keep down the 
percentage of Jewish students without appearing to do so 
has exercised the ingenuity of many presidents, deans and 
faculties. It is a process never quite successful, because Jew¬ 
ish students are among the most alert and insistent to be 
found in educational institutions of all grades, and their de¬ 
termination to secure the advantages of such discipline is 
not to be defeated by hardship or racial discrimination. 

A Jewish youth has to face exclusion from the usual 
fraternity life of the campus. His only resort is the creation 
of fraternities of his own race . 2 In many other regards he is 
conscious of exclusion. This tends naturally to the establish¬ 
ment of a Jewish bloc, whose members stand together in 
such interests as enlist their activity. If they gain the repu¬ 
tation of clannishness, as is often the case, it is less the result 
of their preference than of the treatment they receive from 
their non-Jewish fellow students. It is probable that the 

2 These associations are both of the secular fraternity type and of re¬ 
ligious character. The B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation has established Jewish 
student centers in connection with the Universities of Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, 
Michigan, California, West Virginia and Texas, and at Cornell University. 

—389— 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


Jewish members of college and university groups are often 
less popular than others because as a rule they are indus¬ 
trious and intelligent. They have a single purpose in their 
work, and are not so likely to be diverted from the main ob¬ 
ject by other interests, social and athletic. The average 
student too frequently dislikes to allow his studies to inter¬ 
fere with his college work. The Jewish boy has little of that 
kind of prejudice. It is not too much to say that Jewish 
students by their hard study and industry have had a meas¬ 
urable influence in raising the standards for admission and 
graduation in American schools. 

If Jews are characterized by marked variations in type, 
in vocation, in culture and in manners, not less do they dif¬ 
fer in religious alignment. Judaism presents three strikingly 
different groups — the Orthodox, the Reform or Liberal, 
and the Zionist. These are not wholly separated, or neces¬ 
sarily distinct in all regards. There are, for example, Zion¬ 
ists in both the Orthodox and the Liberal sections. And all 
three have gradations of commitment which amount almost 
to group divisions. 

The Orthodox section includes those Jews who have 
come more immediately from the ghetto populations of 
Europe or who have retained more fully on American soil 
the habits and thinking of European Jewry. Among those 
of them who remain faithful to their religion the synagogue 
service is maintained with devoted loyalty to the conserva¬ 
tive traditions of Judaism. The sacred rolls of the Torah 
and the remaining books of the scripture are held in the 
same veneration in their chests as are the consecrated ele¬ 
ments of the eucharist in the Roman Catholic church. The 


— 390 — 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


sacred days of the calendar are kept both in the homes and 
synagogue. The Shema is repeated as a duty and privilege . 3 
The Passover, Rosh ha-Shana, the Day of Atonement and 
the other feasts and fasts are times of solemn observance 
with fitting garments and behavior. The synagogue is the 
community center of the local group with much of the same 
sanctity it possessed in the middle ages, when it was both a 
place of worship and a refuge. The rules of conduct pre¬ 
scribed in the Shulchan Aruch are observed with much 
greater fidelity than in more liberal circles. The reading 
of the Old Testament is a feature of family life, and the 
study of the Talmud is more obligatory in rabbinical circles 
than among Reform Jews. 

Naturally in a new world environment and in the mod¬ 
ern age the Orthodox Jew finds the problem of loyalty to 
ancient forms and beliefs increasingly difficult, particularly 
in the religious experience of his children. Complaint is 
often heard among them that the younger generation tends 
to neglect the obligations of the synagogue, and even of the 
home, and to lapse into paganism. This, of course, is not 
exclusively a Jewish problem in a scientific and questioning 
generation. The same tension is felt in Christian circles, 
both Protestant and Roman Catholic. Among the Jews it 
is particularly felt in small communities where the group 
influence is weak. The beliefs of the Orthodox Jew are 
deep-going and sincere. His is an intense monotheism 
which resents the Christian assumption of the deity of 
Jesus as an unwarranted invasion of the divine unity. He 

3 The Shema (“Hear, O Israel”) is the beautiful passage in Deut. 6:4-9, 
which is a fitting confession of faith. 


— 391 — 



The Jew Through the Centuries 


is willing to concede the impressive character of Jesus, 
but not as superior to the Hebrew prophets, whom he in¬ 
sists on identifying with his own race. As to the mes¬ 
sianic hope, he has either dismissed it as a vain expecta¬ 
tion of the past or holds it as still possible of realization, 
through the coming of some great prophet or in the ful¬ 
fillment of Zionist hopes. But his people have suffered so 
sorely through the years as the result of Christian misunder¬ 
standing and persecution that the memory of Christmas and 
Easter pogroms in Europe is vivid and ineffaceable, and his 
contact with Christians is likely to be commercial, formal 
and reserved. His home and his synagogue are his sanctu¬ 
aries, where the Sabbath is kept with fidelity, the dietetic 
tabus of the Torah are observed, and his family and friends 
are as far as possible his exclusive circle. 

Reform or Liberal Judaism exhibits a distinct break with 
the older order of the Orthodox. The public service of the 
temple or synagogue is at once more simplified and more 
beautiful. There is no line of separation between men and 
women. Part of the worship occurs on the Sabbath and 
part of it on Sunday. The preaching is less the exposition 
of scriptural and talmudic texts than the presentation of 
modern themes, such as Christian ministers find worthful . 4 
Liberal Judaism has largely freed itself from the legalism 

4 One is often intrigued in attending a Jewish service with the frequent 
quotations in Hebrew from the Old Testament. It is improbable that any of 
the members of the congregation, save in rare instances, have any knowledge of 
Hebrew, and it is unfair to a cultured rabbi to imagine that he is resorting to 
the device merely for purposes of pedantry or ostentation. There was a time 
when Christian ministers were much addicted to learned quotations in Hebrew, 
Greek or Latin, in spite of the fact that such a display of erudition was wholly 
valueless as a homiletic aid. The wonder is that some rabbis still employ it. 


— 392 — 





The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


of early and mediaeval teachings, and rests back upon the 
ethical and spiritual ideals of the prophets and the psalmists 
of Israel. It reveres the Old Testament, and respects the 
Talmud. It repeats the Shema with devotion. But for the 
dogmas and rules of the Shulchan Aruch it has no use as 
binding upon conscience or conduct. Its attitude toward 
the dietetic and other laws of the Torah is free, though not 
necessarily indifferent. Marriage and divorce are treated 
as modern social facts, and not as matters of regulation in 
accordance with rabbinical law. It accepts the common 
scholarly attitude toward evolution and other scientific truths 
as disclosed in the discoveries of the age, and the results of 
critical inquiry in the field of biblical literature. It is not 
interested in the older Jewish prayers for the rebuilding of 
the temple in Jerusalem or the restoration of the sacrificial 
cultus. 

Naturally Liberal Judaism, true to the historic attitude 
of the synagogue, rejects the Christian doctrines of the 
trinity, the atonement, and the superior value of the New 
Testament. But while finding no place in its creed for any 
type of Christology such as Christianity professes, its atti¬ 
tude toward Jesus is appreciative and reverent. It is con¬ 
scious that the Jews gave him to the world, and that Judaism 
has a message regarding his universal values to which the 
church might well give heed. Its messianic hope centers 
not in a person nor in Zionistic dreams regarding a repos¬ 
sessed Palestine, as some of its people insist. At its best it is 
concerned with an aroused and consecrated Judaism posses¬ 
sing a vital and world-wide evangel of justice, peace and 
brotherhood, a spirit of good will for which the nations wait. 


—393 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


Its emphasis is upon God, humanity and the social virtues. 
It sets its face against all forms of privileges and militarism. 
In many features Liberal Judaism resembles Unitarianism, 
in which communion in fact many Jews have found a 
church home. 

But Judaism, both Orthodox and Liberal, has many 
problems to face today. One of its best known interpreters 
writes of it in these words: “We are going through the 
throes of theological disintegration. There are many Jews 
today whose loyalty to the synogague is just as attenuated 
as the loyalty of thousands of Christians to the church. 
There are those who continue to support the synagogue for 
purely sentimental reasons or because they too are not brave 
enough to break completely, but follow the line of least re¬ 
sistance. Of course, with us there is this great difference: 
Christendom really at heart would not welcome the Jew, 
all the efforts at conversion to the contrary notwithstand¬ 
ing. But we Jews are faced with the same problem as our 
Christian brethren: How shall we rebuild the structure of 
religious life which is falling about our heads? This is as 
true of Orthodox Jews as it is of Reform or Liberal Jews. 
. . . What is the Jew ? Is he a race ? Is he a denomination 
such as Protestant or Catholic? Is he a nation in the sense 
that the French or English are nations ? Is he a nationality ? 
What is nationality? Why should the Jew continue to re¬ 
fuse to intermarry? Why should he retain his distinctive¬ 
ness ? What is the 4 mission of the Jew ’ ? In what sense, 
if any, is he a ‘chosen people’ ? What compromises in 
thinking and conduct will he be called upon and can he 
make without sacrificing his identity? How can he main- 


— 394 — 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


tain his integrity and why ? Our best critical thought today 
is engaged in examining anew the foundations of our be¬ 
liefs and our purposes.” 5 

Zionists constitute a third section of the race, although, 
as already stated, their numbers usually belong either among 
the Orthodox or the Reformed. But to the true Zionist the 
problem of Palestine is more important than the differences 
between the two classes among his people, although Zionists 
differ radically among themselves over the puzzle which 
Palestine presents. That problem has been given considera¬ 
tion in the last two chapters, and requires no restatement 
here. 

The world’s debt to the Jew in almost every area of 
activity is too great to be recorded in a paragraph. In litera¬ 
ture Jews have held a notable place, such names as Heine 
and Spinoza suggesting many others. To all the arts Jews 
have made significant contributions, of which the names of 
Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Goldmark, Ruben- 
stein, Hoffman, Heifetz and Kreisler in the single field of 
music are a suggestion. Karl Marx is the commanding fig¬ 
ure in the domain of socialism. In science Michelson and 
Einstein are names significant of leadership. In the domain 
of philanthropy, Nathan Straus and Julius Rosenwald have 
been conspicuous, and many other Jews have given evidence 
of the same spirit. The place of the Jew in the story of 
America has been important. Santangel the capitalist, De 
Torres the soldier, Gerson the navigator, Cresques the map- 
maker and Ibn Ezra the astronomer and mathematician 

5 Rabbi Morris G. Lazaron, Baltimore, Maryland, in “ Unity,” June 15, 

I93i. 


—395 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


were helpers in Columbus’ discovery of the continent. His 
first letters home were sent in acknowledgment to the Jews 
Santangel and Sanchez. From that time onward the place 
and services of Jews in American history have been impres¬ 
sive, and have found frequent recital. 

In spite, however, of all the contributions made by the 
Jew to civilization in America and other parts of the world, 
he still suffers the results of unfriendly patterns of thought 
carried over from the middle ages. The fact that Chris¬ 
tians degraded the Jews by shutting them away in ghettos, 
denying them the right to own land, prohibiting them from 
the pursuit of normal occupations, forcing them to wear 
garments which were badges of disgrace, persecuting them 
for being Jews, attempting to force them into baptism, and 
destroying their sacred books, has left a long and bitter 
heritage of antagonism which will require time and reso¬ 
lute effort to overcome. It has produced a vicious stereo¬ 
type in the attitude of most non-Jews toward that unhappy 
race. 

There is discrimination against Jews in employment 
which makes it difficult for them to secure positions except 
among their own people. To be known as a Jew is fre¬ 
quently sufficient to shut the doors of clubs or hotels, or to 
prevent entrance into desirable residence sections, quite re¬ 
gardless of the character or culture of the applicant. It is 
not strange that escape has been sought in multitudes of 
cases by change of name, or by the adoption of another faith. 
Anti-Semitism, although it is a misnomer, continues in 
America, where it has least excuse for existence. Defama¬ 
tory uses of the word “ Jew ” are encountered, as though it 

—396— 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


were synonymous with “ usurer ” and “ undesirable.” Such 
characterizations are frequently unconscious and not inten¬ 
tionally discourteous, as the Anti-defamation Commission 
of the B’nai B’rith has revealed. All the more do they dis¬ 
close the bias of popular speech. The dissemination of anti- 
Jewish literature is a potent source of ill will. One of the 
most discreditable journalistic campaigns in the history of 
the country was maintained for many months against Jews 
by a wealthy manufacturer, only to collapse at last by its 
own falsehood and futility. No intelligent Jew is longer 
offended by the portrait of “Shylock,” which as everyone 
knows, is not to be taken seriously as more than a type in the 
England of Shakespeare’s time, when there were practically 
no Jews in the land. 

Yet the members of that race suffer many disabilities, 
both economic and social, in Europe and the United States. 
Even physical violence is not wholly a thing of the past. 
In Saloniki, where a large proportion of the population is 
Jewish, a mob attacked and wrecked the offices of the Mac¬ 
cabees society during the summer of 1931 under the impulse 
of race prejudice. In Berlin, at the festival of Rosh ha-Shana 
in the autumn of the same year, anti-Jewish riots spread ter¬ 
ror and violence in the Jewish quarter. In Cracow, Warsaw 
and other Polish university centers, student riots were organ¬ 
ized a month later against the Jews because of their refusal 
to deliver bodies for dissection. Conflicts in which the Jews 
are the objects of attacks are frequently reported, chiefly in 
Poland, Roumania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Such re¬ 
ports read like the stories of outrages committed in the 
ghettos of the middle ages. 


—397— 








The Jew Through the Centuries 


These and similar events are the result of racial, na¬ 
tionalistic and religious prejudices, as senseless as they are 
cruel. As Julius Drachsler writes: “ They are fundamentally 
socially conditioned reactions. There are no instinctive 
prejudices. All are socially created. The only ‘ instinctive ’ 
element is the capacity to develop either in one direction or 
in the other. The social environment into which a child is 
born is replete with admonitions, positive and negative, 
which tend accumulatively to fix attitudes. Think of the 
complex of influences that relentlessly, steadily bear down 
on the Polish child with reference to his Jewish neighbors. 
Thus we begin to get an idea of this conditioning process 
that has its source in environment.” 6 Children have no such 
prejudices until they are inoculated with the group hatreds 
which prevail in their families. Jewish and non-Jewish boys 
form close and enduring friendships. Unfriendliness toward 
the Jew is a vicious social neurosis toward an “ out group.” 
Such groups are always the objects of suspicion. We be¬ 
lieve evil of them. We damage them. We discriminate 
against them. We keep away from them. One of the tests 
of a militant and efficient Christianity is its vigorous protest 
against race prejudice in every form. The next great step 
in American education ought to be the extension of intelli¬ 
gence and the expansion of the areas of good will by means 
of which boys and girls of all faiths shall be released from 
religious and racial prejudice. They will thus be led to co¬ 
operate in the building of an ethical and spiritual civilization 
which can meet and overcome the mechanized and material 
pattern of life now prevalent. With that type of education 

6 Bruno Lasker, Jewish Experiences in America, p. 92. 

—398— 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


there will come a measurable disappearance of racial and re¬ 
ligious prejudices. 

The closer approach of Christians and Jews to each other 
is one of the important problems of the present period. It 
would seem that the ineffective method is that of Christian 
missions to Jews. With no sentiment but one of good will 
toward the earnest and sacrificial men and women who are 
promoting missions among the Jews, it would seem that the 
greater need of the time is such friendliness on the part of 
Christians toward Jews as shall result in a cooperative effort 
for social ends without loss of appreciation of both Jewish 
and Christian forms of belief. The best religious service 
which a Christian can render a Jew is to encourage him in 
loyalty to his ancestral faith. There is far greater value, both 
to the individual and to society, in that fidelity to the funda¬ 
mental elements of religion which are found both in Judaism 
and Christianity than in the transfer of men and women 
from the one confession to the other. One is not unmindful 
of the hope cherished by the apostle Paul that his Jewish 
brethren might all share the satisfaction which he found in 
the gospel. It was the misfortune both of Judaism and 
Christianity that mistakes in the strategy of cooperation at 
the beginnings of the Christian movement — mistakes on 
both sides — rendered such hopes as Paul’s abortive, and the 
experience of later centuries widened the breach. That 
chasm is not to be closed by any process of proselyting, but 
by growing appreciation each of the other, and by friendly 
cooperation in congenial tasks. The terms “ Christian ” and 
“ Jew ” should cease to connote two hostile cultures. They 
have too much in common to warrant such estrangement. 


399“ 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


These terms ought to stand for the best in the two confes¬ 
sions, as Lessing makes clear in his much-quoted lines, in 
which he has the Christian monk say to the Jewish Nathan: 

“ Heaven bless us; 

That which makes me to you a Christian 

Makes you to me a Jew.” 

Christians could become much more Christian than they 
are in their attitude toward Jews, and Jews might also culti¬ 
vate a more friendly spirit. 

Among the methods which are proving of value in the 
cultivation of good will and the removal of the tragic reality 
of prejudice between Jews and Christians is the fostering of 
friendly relations in gatherings where exchange of opinion 
and social appreciation can be promoted. Jewish rabbis are 
being invited to membership in ministerial associations and 
other conferential groups. No society for biblical research or 
religious discussion would think of depriving itself of the 
values derived from the presence and contributions of Jew¬ 
ish scholars. 7 They should be asked to fill Christian pulpits 
and to give lectures to Christian audiences. Both in cul¬ 
ture and courtesy their appearance would be of high value. 
Such contacts would prove of lasting advantage, and would 
be appreciated and reciprocated. 

In recent months more direct and purposeful relations 
between Christians and Jews have been promoted under the 
auspices of the “ Committee on Goodwill between Jews and 

7 An example cf friendly cooperation between Christian and Jewish 
scholars is the recent dedication by Professor G. Bear of his edition of the 
Mishna Ms. Codex Kaufman, A 50. to the Jerusalem University (JAOS. Mar. 
1931, p. 80). 

— 400 — 





The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


Christians ” of the Federal Council of the Churches of 
Christ in America. The purpose of this committee and the 
conferences held under its direction is “ to unite Jews and 
Christians in Goodwill; and to promote cooperation in be¬ 
half of a social order more nearly based on those ideals of 
justice, fellowship, and peace which are common to the 
prophetic traditions of Jews and Christians alike.” Meetings 
at which representatives of both faiths have spoken in inter¬ 
pretative and friendly spirit have been held in more than a 
hundred communities, including several colleges and uni¬ 
versities. A significant comment was made by Mr. Edward 
A. Filene, the well-known Jewish merchant and philan¬ 
thropist of Boston, to the effect that the most potent cure for 
anti-Semitism would be the support of the social service 
program of the Federal Council of Churches by American 
Jews. There are Jewish journals such as “The American 
Hebrew ” which might be read to advantage by members of 
the Christian community, just as there are scholarly volumes 
produced by Jewish writers which are welcomed both in 
Jewish and non-Jewish circles. 

The attitude which gives the best promise of friendli¬ 
ness and mutual appreciation on the part both of Jews and 
Christians is a resolute determination to forget the mistakes 
and sins of the past and to cultivate a new spirit of good will. 
The Christian is humbled by the memory of a past which is 
dark with hatred, cruelty and prejudice toward the Jew. 
But there is no virtue in mere sentimental regrets. The 
immeasurable contributions made by the Jew to civilization, 
morality and religion place the Church under obligation to 
join forces with the Synagogue in the effort to bring in the 
— 401 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


era of brotherhood and peace for which the world waits. On 
the other hand, the Jew needs to avoid morbid and self- 
pitying complacency over his unhappy past, and taking ad¬ 
vantage of the immense political and social releases which 
have come to him in western Europe and the United States, 
to set himself afresh to the high tasks of caring for the poor 
and unfortunate of his own race, and of meeting purpose¬ 
fully the opportunities and obligations for cultural, ethical 
and spiritual leadership for which his training and experience 
have prepared him. 

His duty is not alone to his own people, definite and es¬ 
sential as that may be. It is to an entire needy and perplexed 
humanity that the message of Jewish faith and courage 
ought to come. The word spoken by the Hebrew prophet 
to his people long ago might well come to leader like Jews 
today: “ It is too slight a thing for your being my servant 
merely to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors 
of Israel. I will make you a light of the nations, that my 
salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 8 On Jew and 
Christian alike rests the obligation which both have inherited 
from the prophetic past to mediate light and direction not 
to a single race but to all mankind. As long as the Jewish 
community produces modern prophets of the type of Abba 
Hillel Silver, Louis L. Mann, Rudolph I. Coffee, Stephen S. 
Wise, Harry Levi and others in a long list of distinguished 
rabbis and teachers, its obligation, like that of the Christian 
church, is clear and emphatic. Its messianic hope lies not 
in a single age or locality, but in a community consecrated to 
the good life and to world peace. The Zion of its dreams is 

8 Isa. 49:6. 

— 402 — 




The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


not in Palestine but in all the lands of Jewish habitation. Its 
language is no one dialect, however historic or sacred, but 
the universal language of all the nations among whom it 
lives. 

And in the fuller attainment of such a world mission, 
the Jew may well come as many of his people have already 
come, to a truer appreciation of Jesus and a more positive 
attitude toward him. As long as he was interpreted under a 
trinitarian formula, the strict monotheism of Jews was 
shocked and repelled. With the passing of that concep¬ 
tion of deity, a new door opens to Jewish and Christian fel¬ 
lowship, and to a recognition of Jesus as the chief contribu¬ 
tion of Jewish life to the world, the prophet and teacher 
whose words hang in the air like banners, and whose sen¬ 
tences walk through all the earth like spirits. The most 
distinguished rabbi and teacher in the Chicago of the last 
generation spoke habitually of Jesus as “ the Savior.” It was 
a term of reverence, even of affection, and carried no impli¬ 
cation of dogmatic Christian beliefs. But it made easier the 
contacts between Christian and Jew. No Christian need 
surrender anything of his faith in the supreme redemptive 
ministry of the Man of Nazareth, nor need the Jew abdi¬ 
cate his position of firm and uncompromising monotheism. 
But there is ample ground for fellowship within the wide 
circle of Jesus’ life and ideals, and each should be able to 
abate, under the spell of his personality and all-embracing 
love, the misunderstandings and estrangements of the past. 
The Jew will not become a Christian, at least not until 
the Christian is more worthy of the name he bears. But 
in the broad area of biblical ideals, where Jesus the Jew 


—403 — 




The Jew Through the Centuries 


remains, as all would confess, the central figure of his¬ 
tory, there is room for a fellowship of faith and service in 
which Christians and Jews of every order may happily 
join. 

What is the future of the Jews as a race ? With the re¬ 
moval of economic barriers, and the attainment of freedom 
in all the western world, will it not be increasingly difficult 
for them to remain a separate and coherent group? Will 
the desire to mingle with the non-Jewish world in social 
life, in scholarly pursuits and in the promotion of better citi¬ 
zenship and morality prove too strong for the habit of racial 
segregation? Has the Jew survived thus far as a separate 
type chiefly by reason of pressure and persecution from with¬ 
out ? And when that pressure is removed, as it is gradually 
disappearing, and the Jews are welcomed increasingly into 
the wider circles of the social order, what can prevent their 
absorption and disappearance, a fate which has overtaken so 
many racial units in the past? The tendency is obvious. 
The numbers of Jews who have merged with other peoples 
is vastly greater than the total company that remains. The 
two strongest factors in their racial persistence have been 
their loyalty to the Torah and the centripetal effect of perse¬ 
cution. Both these factors are losing their force today. 
Will such facts imperil to a serious degree the integrity and 
persistence of Jewish life? The answers are various, and 
none of them is conclusive. But whatever the individual 
opinion may be, it is certain that the Jew who has survived 
so many mutations of fortune in the past will remain an im¬ 
portant element in the life of humanity for a long time to 
come, and that his place in the history of world affairs, of 


— 404— 





The Jew Today and Tomorrow 


culture and of religion will be determined far less by out¬ 
ward influences, such as have shaped his career to so large a 
degree in the centuries gone by, than by the courageous and 
determined attitude of the leaders of his own race on whom 
so high a degree of opportunity and obligation has fallen. 


— 405 — 

















BIBLIOGRAPHY 


THE BIBLE TEXT 

English Revised Version, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1886. 

American Standard Bible, Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York, 1901. 

The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1917. 

The Holy Bible, A New Translation, by James Moffatt, George H. Doran Com¬ 
pany, New York, 1926. 

The Bible, An American Translation, by J. M. Powis Smith and Edgar J. Good- 
speed, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1931. 

THE BIBLE 

Booth, Harry Kendall, The Background of the Bible, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 
New York, 1928. 

Fosdick, Harry Emerson, The Modern Use of the Bible, The Macmillan Com¬ 
pany, New York, 1924. 

Willett, Herbert L., The Bible Through the Centuries, Willett, Clark & Colby, 
Chicago, 1929. 

PALESTINE 

Smith, George Adam, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, A. C. Armstrong 
and Son, New York, 1904. 

Luke, Harry Charles, and Keith-Roach, Edward, eds., Handbook of Palestine, 
The Macmillan Company, London, 1930. 

Garstang, John, Foundations of Bible History, Richard R. Smith, Inc., New York, 
1931 - 

Fosdick, Harry Emerson, A Pilgrimage to Palestine, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1927. 

Olmstead, A. T., History of Palestine and Syria, to the Macedonian Conquest, 
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1931. 

BIBLICAL HISTORY 

Foakes-Jackson, F. J., Biblical History of the Hebrews, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 
New York, 1921. 

Kent, Charles Foster, A History of the Hebrew People, 2 vols., Charles Scrib¬ 
ner’s Sons, New York, 1921. 


—407— 


The Jew Through the Centuries 


Riggs, James Stephenson, and Kent, Charles Foster, A History of the Jewish 
People, 2 vols., Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1903. 

Wild, Laura H., The Evolution of the Hebrew People, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 
New York, 1917. 

Lofthouse, W. F., Israel After the Exile, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1928. 

Radin, Max, Life of the People in Biblical Times, Jewish Publication Society, 
Philadephia, 1929. 

Montefiore, Claude G., The Old Testament and After, The Macmillan Com¬ 
pany, New York, 1923. 

HEBREW RELIGION 

Kittel, R., The Religion of the People of Israel, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1925. 

Barton, George A., The Religion of Israel, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1918. 

Fowler, Henry Thatcher, Origin and Growth of the Hebrew Religion, Univer¬ 
sity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1916. 

Ottley, R. L., The Religion of Israel, The University Press, Cambridge, 1905. 

Budde, Karl, The Religion of Israel to the Exile, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 
1899. 

Cheyne, T. K., Jewish Religious Life After the Exile, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New 
York, 1898. 

NEW TESTAMENT TIMES 

Schurer, Emil, The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 5 vols., Charles 
Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1896. 

Mathews, Shailer, New Testament Times in Palestine, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1900. 

Lake, Kirsopp, Landmarks in Early Christianity, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1922. 

Norton, Frederick Owen, The Rise of Christianity, University of Chicago Press, 
Chicago, 1924. 

Case, Shirley Jackson, The Evolution of Early Christianity, University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago, 1914. 

Case, Shirley Jackson, The Social Origins of Christianity, University of Chicago 
Press, Chicago, 1923. 

JESUS 

Case, Shirley Jackson, Jesus, A New Biography, University of Chicago Press, 
Chicago, 1927. 

Barton, George A., Jesus of Nazareth, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1922. 

— 408 — 





Bibliography 


Klausner, Joseph, Jesus of Nazareth, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1929. 

Enelow, Hyman G., A Jewish View of Jesus, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1929. 

Jacobs, Joseph, Jesus as Others Saw Him, B. G. Richards Company, New York, 
1929. 

Walker, Thomas, Jewish Views of Jesus, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1931 - 

Hirsch, E. G., The Crucifixion from a Jewish Standpoint, Bloch Publishing Com¬ 
pany, New York, 1921. 

Montefiore, Claude G., The Synoptic Gospels, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1927. 

McCown, Chester Charlton, The Genesis of the Social Gospel, Alfred A. Knopf, 
New York, 1929. 

THE PHARISEES 

Abrahams, I., Studies in Pharisaism and the Gospels, 2 vols., The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1924. 

Herford, R., Travers, Pharisaism: Its Aim and Its Method, Bloch Publishing 
Company, New York, 1924. 

Herford, R., Travers, The Pharisees, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1924. 

Robertson, A. T., The Pharisees and Jesus, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 
1920. 

Riddle, Donald W., Jesus and The Pharisees, University of Chicago Press, Chi¬ 
cago, 1928. 

JUDAISM 

Abrahams, Israel, Judaism, Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 1927. 

Moore, George Foot, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Fra, 2 vols., 
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1927. 

Joseph, Morris, Judaism as Creed and Life, Bloch Publishing Company, New 
York, 1924. 

Enelow, H. G., The Adequacy of Judaism, Bloch Publishing Company, New 
York, 1929. 

Kohler, K., Jewish Theology, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1929. 

Roller, Armin H., The Foundations of Jewish Ethics, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1929. 

Philipson, David, The Reform Movement in Judaism, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1907. 

Waxman, Meyer, A History of Jewish Literature, Bloch Publishing Company, 
New York, 1930. 


— 409 — 





The Jew Through the Centuries 


JEWISH HISTORY 

Graetz, H., History of the Jews, 5 vols., Hebrew Publishing Company, New 
York, 1926. 

Margolis, M. L., and Marx, A., History of the Jewish People, Jewish Publication 
Society, Philadelphia, 1926. 

Dubnow, S. M., Jewish History, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1903. 

Goodman, Paul, History of the Jews, E. P. Dutton & Company, New York, 1927. 

Levinger, Elm a and Lee J., The Story of the Jew, Behrman’s Bookshop, New 
York, 1929. 

Elbogen, Ismar, History of the Jews after the Fall of the Jewish State, Union of 
American Hebrew Congregations, Cincinnati, 1926. 

Beven, Edwyn R., and Singer, Charles, eds., The Legacy of Israel, Clarendon 
Press, Oxford, 1927. 

Browne, Lewis, Stranger than Fiction, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1927 - 

Silver, M., Justice and Judaism in the Light of Today, Bloch Publishing Com¬ 
pany, New York, 1928. 

Abrahams, I., Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1897. 

Philipson, David, Old European Jewries, Jewish Publication Society, Cincinnati, 
1894. 

Raisin, Max, History of the Jews in Modern Times, Jewish Publication Society, 
Cincinnati, 1926. 

Silver, Abba Hillel, The Democratic Impulse in Jewish History, Bloch Publish¬ 
ing Company, New York, 1928. 

Silver, Abba Hillel, Messianic Speculation in Israel, The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1927. 

THE JEWS 

Zangwill, Israel, Dreamers of the Ghetto, The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1898. 

Zangwill, Israel, Ghetto Tragedies, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1893. 

Zangwill, Israel, Israel, the Voice of Jerusalem, The Macmillan Company, New 
York, 1921. 

Wirth, Louis, The Ghetto, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1928. 

Lewisohn, Ludwig, Israel, Boni & Liveright, New York, 1925. 

Godbey, Allen H., The Lost Tribes a Myth, Duke University Press, Durham, 
N. C., 1930. 

Jacobs, Joseph, Jewish Contributions to Civilization, Jewish Publication Society, 
Philadelphia, 1919. 


— 410 — 




Bibliography 


Calisch, Edward N., The Jew in English Literature, Bell Book and Stationery 
Company, Richmond, Va., 1909. 

Philipson, David, The Jew in English Fiction, Bloch Publishing Company, New 
York, 1918. 

Kallen, Horace, Frontiers of Hope, Horace Liveright, New York, 1929. 

Antin, Mary, The Promised Land, Houghton, Mifflin Company, New York, 1917. 
Lebeson, Anita L’Oman, Jewish Pioneers in America, Brentano’s, New York, 
1931 - 

Palli£re, A., The Unknown Sanctuary, Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 

1928. 

Kohut, Rebekah, My Portion, Boni 8c Liveright, New York, 1912. 

Kohut, Rebekah, As I Know Them, Doubleday, Doran 8c Company, New York, 

1929. 

Lewisohn, Ludwig, The Island Within, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1928. 
Wise, James Waterman, (Analyticus) Jews Are JJ\e That, Brentano’s, New York, 
1929 - 

Hertz, I. H., Boo\ of Jewish Thoughts, Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 
1920. 

Fleg, Edmund, The Jewish Anthology, Harcourt, Brace 8c Company, New York, 
1925. 

Cohen, Israel, Jewish Life in Modern Times, Dodd, Mead 8c Company, New York, 
1929. 

JEWISH CLASSICS 

Deutsch, Emanuel, Talmud, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1919. 
Darmsteter, A., Talmud, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1919. 
Maimonides, Guide to the Perplexed, Translation by Friedlander, M., E. P. Dutton 
8c Company, New York. 

Josephus, Flavius, Antiquities of the Jews, Bigelow, Brown 8c Company, New 
York, 1924. 

Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish Wars, Bigelow, Brown 8c Company, New York, 
1924. 

Gorfinkle, J., Sayings of the Fathers, Bloch Publishing Company, New York, 
1923. 

ZIONISM 

Samuel, Maurice, What Happened in Palestine, The Stratford Company, Boston, 
1929. 

Samuel, Maurice, On the Rim of the Wilderness, Horace Liveright, New York, 
1931 - 

Holmes, John Haynes, Palestine Today and Tomorrow, The Macmillan Com¬ 
pany, New York, 1929. 






The Jew Through the Centuries 


Wise, Stephen S., and De Haas, Jacob, The Great Betrayal, Brentano’s, New 
York, 1930. 

Loudres, Albert, The Jew Has Come Home, Richard R. Smith, Inc., New York, 
1931 * 


CHRISTIANS AND JEWS 

Herford, R. Travers, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, Bloch Publishing 
Company, New York, 1928. 

Landman, I., edited by, Christian and Jew, Horace Liveright, Inc., New York, 
1929 - 

Conning, J. S., Our Jewish Neighbors, Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 
1927. 

Montefiore, Claude G., Rabbinic Literature and Gospel Teachings, The Mac¬ 
millan Company, New York, 1926. 

Parkes, James W., The Jew and his Neighbour, Richard R. Smith, Inc., New 
York, 1931. 

Danby, Herbert (Julia Frankau), The Jew and Christianity, The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1927. 

Black, J., and others, The Christian Approach to the Jew, International Missionary 
Council, New York, 1927. 

Gavin, Frank, Jewish Antecedents to the Christian Sacrament, The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1928. 

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 

Barton, George A., Archaeology and the Bible, American Sunday School Union, 
Philadelphia, 1916. 

Coburn, Camden M., The New Archaeological Discoveries, Funk & Wagnalls 
Company, New York, 1917. 

Duncan, George S., Introduction to Biblical Archaeology, Fleming H. Revell 
Company, New York, 1928. 

WORKS OF REFERENCE 

Jewish Encyclopedia, edited by Singer, Isadore, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New 
York, 1925. 


PERIODICALS AND ORGANIZATIONS 

Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, Information Service, Sept. 21 
and Nov. 23, 1929. 

National Conference of Jews and Christians, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 

— 412 — 






Bibliography 


Committee on Good Will between Jews and Christians, 105 E. 22 St., New York 
City. 

Tract Commission of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Rabbi George 
Zepin, Cincinnati. 

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, 50 West 77 St., New York City. 
Zionist Organization, hi Fifth Ave., New York City. 

Friends of Justice in Palestine (The Arab Position), Room 2150, 233 Broadway, 
New York City. 

Foreign Policy Association, 18 E. 41st St., New York City. 


413— 







INDEX 


Aaron, 172, 206, 209 
Absorption, 117 

Accessions to Judaism, 312, 313 

Achad Ha’am (Asher Ginsburg), 323 

Accretions, 91, 92, 156 

Acre, 26, 58, 60 

Adler, Felix, 384 

Aeroplanes, 37 

Agrippa II, 270, 278 

Ahijah, 100 

Akhenaten, 109, 190 

Akiba (Aqiba), Rabbi, 209 

Aksa, el-, 46, 47 > 353 

Albanian, 7 

Alexander the Great, 11, 131* I35> 
197, 198, 258, 265 
Alexander III, 322 
Alexander Jannaeus, 13, 210 
Alexandra, 210 

Alexandria, 11, 12, 117, 192, 198, 
265 

Allenby, Gen. Lord, 63, 332, 357 
Amorites, 72, 74, 78, 82, 83, 88 
Animals in Palestine, 34 
Antioch, 11, 200 
Antiochus III, 200 

Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, 13, 200, 202, 
203 

Antipater, 13, 211, 212, 258 
Antony, Mark, 212, 259 
Apocalypses, 205, 220, 221, 263, 269, 
274 

Apocrypha, 220, 223 
Apostles, 251 

Appreciation of the Jews, 21 
Aqiba (Akiba), Rabbi, 277 
Arab Congresses, 376 
Arabia, 345 

Arabic language and culture, 340, 347 
Arabs, 21, 47, 63, 65, 84, 180, 295, 
316, 337, 346, 348, 353> 3<>4> 

367 

Arab States, 353* 357 


Aramaic language, 128, 137, 138, 144, 
199, 216, 219, 222, 237 
Archaeology, 67 
Arch of Titus, 273, 276 
Aristobulus, 209 
Art, 230 

Artaxerxes I, 4, 134, 139 
Artaxerxes II, 5, 144 
Artaxerxes III, 9, 190 
“ Ascension of Isaiah,” 263 
Askelon, 26, 88 

Asmon (Hasmon), Mattathias, 201 
“ Assumption of Moses,” 263 
Assyria, 3, 90, 100, 101, 105, 107 
Augustus, Emperor, 259 

Baalism, 39 

Babylonia, 3, 5, 76, 101, 112, 115, 117, 
122, 124, 141, 153, 163, 175, 219, 
282, 283, 284, 294 
Badges of shame, 19, 290, 299, 396 
Bahais, 67 
Baibars, 59 
Baldwin, 52, 53, 56 
Balfour declaration, 64, 325, 326, 337, 
338, 350, 358, 359, 362, 363, 364, 
368, 369, 325, 379 
Balfour, Lord J., 64, 362 
Baptism, 240, 347, 306 
Bar Cochba, Joseph, 18, 45, 277 
Baruch, book of, 223, 263 
Beersheba, 24 

Bernard of Clairveaux, 55, 293 
Bethlehem, 236 
Bible, 220, 225 
Bible (see Scripture) 

Biblical sites, 67 
Bishops, 278 
B’nai Brith, 297 

“ Book of the Covenant,” 103, 171, 
172 

Boycott, 372 

Brandeis, Justice L. D., 338 


—415— 


Index 


British Administration of Palestine, 64, 
65, 326, 338, 339, 356, 361, 363, 

367 

Buddhism, 176, 247 
Byzantine empire, 48 

Cabala (caballa), 311 
Caesarea, 236, 267, 275, 278 
Caligula (Caius), Emperor, 262, 265 
Caliphate, 317, 345, 356 
Canaan, 25, 71, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83 
Canon, 150, 220 
Canticles, Song of Songs, 219 
Carmel, 26 

Change of names, 7, 159, 160 
Characteristics of Jews, 20 
Chariots, 35 

Charlemagne, 49, 54, 290, 347 

Castles, 54, 59 

China, 168, 183 

Chosroes II (Khosru), 47, 291 

Christian, 7, 129 

Christianity, 12, 14, 16, 42, 86, 102, 
157, 224, 246, 247, 251, 278, 395 
Christians, 245, 251, 256, 266, 269, 
280 

Christian Science, 313 
Christmas, 17 

Chronicler, 98, 106, 109, 122, 123, 
124, 127, 136, 137, 140, 141, 145, 
149, 150, 156, 169, 170, 175, 179, 
186, 187, 193, 197, 216, 219 
Chronicles, 115, 122, 135, 217, 218 
Church, 12, 163, 174, 401 
Circumcision, 152, 164, 200, 209, 276, 
277 

Classes of Jews, 387, 388 
Claudius, Emperor, 266, 294, 305 
Climate, 30 
Coffee, R. I., 402 

Colonies, Jewish, 319, 328, 329, 365 
Columbus, Christopher, 302, 396 
Constantine, 46, 251, 278 
Constantinople (Istanbul), 46, 51, 52, 
345 

Constantius, 287 
Conversion of Jews, 297, 298 
Crimean war, 63 
Cromwell, Oliver, 304 
Crucifixion, 245, 301 
Crusades, 23, 30, 51, 55, 57, 58, 60, 
61, 124, 292, 293, 344 


Cyrus, 121, 122, 123, 135, 142, 153, 
155, 219 

Dan, 24 

Daniel, book of, 121, 128, 138, 192, 
221, 222, 233, 262 
Dante, 181 
Darius I, 127, 134 
Darius II, 193 

David, 2, 74, 89, 90, 91, 97, 99, 134, 
168, 169, 170, 175 
Dead Sea, 27, 28, 29, 330 
Defamation of Jews, 396, 397 
Defections from Judaism, 313 
Delta, 72, 75, 78 
Deportation, 98 

Deuteronomy, 4, 5, 93, 108, 109, 118, 
143, 171, 172, 173, 175, 176, 178, 
194 

Diaspora, 16, 41, 255 
Disciples, 15, 16, 241 
Dispersion, 19, 78, 97, 101, no, 112, 
131, 154 . I 79* 192, 274, 279, 280, 
282, 302, 307, 308 
Disraeli, 1, 292 

Dome of the Rock (“ Mosque . of 
Omar ”), 48, 52, 62, 350, 360 
Domitian, Emperor, 276, 281 
Druses, 50, 62 

Earthquake, 32 
Easter, 17 

Ecclesiastes, book of, 219 
Ecclesiasticus, book of, 220 
Edom, 137 

Edomites (Idumeans), 8, 13, 41, 74, 
106, 120, 128, 161, 184, 189, 204, 
210, 211, 218 

Education, Jewish, 331, 389, 398 
Egypt, 3, 4, 10, 11, 23, 37, 56, 72, 
75, 76, 78, 79, 88, 90, 98, 109, in, 
114, 116, 117, 133, 153, 191, 198, 
199, 200, 203, 220, 265, 346, 

377 

Einstein, A., 1, 379, 395 
Elephantine, n, 116, 117, 142, 154 
Emperor worship, 289 
England, 19 

Enoch, book of, 221, 262 
Epistle of Jeremy, 223 
“ Eretz Israel,” 375 
Esdraelon, 29 


— 416 — 





Index 


T T T T T T TT’ T " T 


Esdras, 263 

Essenes, 40, 208, 240 

Esther, book of, 83, 191, 196, 220, 233 

Evangelism, 280 

Excavation, 67, 68 

Exile, 115, 122, 135, 283 


Ezekiel 

, book of, 

3 , 5 , 10, 

83, 

112, 

113, 

120 

, 154 , 175 , 1 

[92, 

221, 

232 






Ezra, scribe, 

5, 6, 

8, 13, M 

, 40, 

no, 

1 17 , 

132, 

136, 

138, 140, 

144 , 

146, 

152, 

154 , 

164, 

186, 187, 

195 , 

207, 

208, 

215, 

219, 227, 266 




Ezra, book of, 122, 135, 217 


Faith of Jesus, 248, 250 
Famagusta, 58 

Family records, 181, 182, 183 
Feasts, 150, 228, 237 
Federal Council of Churches, 401 
Feisal, 361, 373, 374 
Ferdinand of Spain, 289, 296, 300 
Filene, E. A., 401 
Flowers of Palestine, 31 
Forestation, 32 

Fourth Gospel (see John, Gospel of) 
France, 296, 304, 358 
Future of Jews, 404 

Galilee, 24, 26, 42, 268, 281 
“ Galilee Man,” 68 
Galilee, Sea of, 27 
Gaza, 59, 63, 88 
Gedaliah, 113 
Gemara, 285 

Genealogies, 8, 96, 137, 145, 146, 170, 
177, 178, 179, 184, 185, 188, 211, 
219 

Genghis Khan, 289, 347 
Gerizim, 9, 42, 193, 196, 205 
Germany, 63, 306 
Gersonides, 311 

Ghetto, 20, 159, 275, 288, 292, 386 
Giants, 74, 75 

Godfrey de Bouillon, 52, 53, 124 
Gospels, 237, 240 
Grand Mufti, 354, 366, 373 
Greece, 86, 99, 157, 197 
Greek language and culture, 6, 11, 
12, 129, 131, 198, 199, 213, 219, 
220, 238, 265 

“ Great Synagogue,” 208, 209 


Hadrian, Emperor, 18, 43, 45, 277, 
291 

Haggai, book of, 3, 116, 125, 127, 134, 
138, 193 
Harems, 92 

Hasmoneans (see Asmoneans, Macca¬ 
bees), 13, 14 
Hattin, battle of, 55, 57 
Haroun al-Rashid, 49, 290, 347 
Hebrew language, 12, 128, 131, 199, 
216, 220, 222, 224, 237, 295, 323, 
334 , 335 . 336 

Hebrews, people, 4, 8, 39, 71, 76, 78, 
79, 80, 82, 83, 84, 88, 95, 97, 114, 
118, 120, 151, 157, 161, 162, 166, 
168 

Hebrews, heritage of, 40; physical 
characteristics, 85; religion, 162 
Hebron, 73, 161, 345, 366 
Helena, 46, 278 
Hellenism, 40 
Heraclius, Emperor, 47, 48 
Hermon, Mt., 30 

Herod the Great, 13, 41, 42, 196, 212, 
214, 258, 260 
Herods, the, 43, 204, 210 
Herodian buildings, 44 
Herzl, Theodore, 323, 324 
Hexeteuch, 284 
Hezekiah, 107, 109, 128 
“High places,” 166 
Hijaz, 357, 373 
Hillel, Rabbi, 282 
Hirsch, Baron, 1, 319 
Hittites, 73, 74, 78, 85, 87, 129 
“ Holiness,” Law of, 177 
Holofernes, 190 
“ Holy Cross Day,” 305, 306 
Holy Sepulchre, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 
53 » 57 , 59 , 30 i 

“ Homeland ” ideal, 358, 375 
Husein, Sherif, 355, 356, 357 , 361, 374 
Hyksos, 72, 73, 78 
Hymns, Hebrew national, 86 
Hyrcanus, John, 42, 204, 212 
Hyrcanus II, 210 

Ibn Saud, 355 , 373, 374 
India, 183 
Infiltration, 189 
Innocent III, Pope, 293 
Inquisition, 19, 300, 308 


—417— 






Index 


Intermarriage, 4, 5, 7, 79, 81, 89, 90, 
91, 92, 93, no, 128, 139, 142, 144, 
148, 149, 151, 189, 193, 266, 287, 
297 

Isabella, Queen, 298, 300, 301 
Isaiah, book of, 95, 104, 107, 126 
Isaiah II, 3, 10, 15, 121, 125, 126, 
193, 232 

Isaiah III, 9, 164, 190, 192, 217 
Isis, 18 

Islam, 47, 56, 84, 86, 157, 230, 344, 
345 . 374 

Israel, kingdom of, 3, 39, 86, 90, 94, 
97, 100, 102, 104, 119 
Italy, 130, 305 
Italian, 6 
Italians, 181 
Izates, 231 

Jacob, 85, 177 
Juddua, 135, 197 
Jahveh, 11, 22, 162 

Jamnia, 18, 20, 273, 277, 281, 283, 

3 M, 333 
Jehoiachin, hi 
J ehoikim, in 
Jehu, 38 

Jeremiah, book of, 10, 104, in, 112, 
114, 125, 192 

Jeroboam I, 178 

Jeroboam II, 98 

Jerusalem, 3, 10, 15, 18, 26, 27, 42, 
63, 64, 74, 89, 90, 91, 98, 106, 112, 
113, 116, 118, 123, 125, 128, 132, 

136, 163, 174, 179, 180, 197, 211, 

256, 269, 272 

Jesus, 14, 15, 17, 70, 163, 187, 215, 
223, 225, 236, 241, 244, 245, 247, 
250, 286, 402 

Jewish classes, 317, 318, 320, 390 
Jewish colonies (see Colonies) 

Jews, 117, 125, 129, 130, 151, 179, 
184, 191, 203, 218, 266 
Jews victims of the crusades, 52 
Jewish traits and characteristics, 7, 158, 
159 

Jihad, holy war, 56, 356 

Job, book of, 217 

Joel, book of, 10, 190, 217, 233 

Johannan ben Zakkai, Rabbi, 273 

John the Baptist, 15, 240, 241, 252 

John, Gospel of, 16 


John, king of England, 303 
Jonah, book of, 15, 218, 234 
Jordan, river, 24, 27, 28, 29, 42, 80 
Josephus, 8, 18, 186, 209, 252, 267 
Joshua, book of, 74, 81, 82 
Joshua, priest, 3, 123, 126, 135 
Josiah, 109, 118, 171, 172, 189 
Jubilees, book of, 222 
Judah, province of, 13, 124, 125, 133, 
135 

Judah, kingdom of, 3, 39, 90, 94, 97, 
102, 105, 106, 107, 112, 123 
Judea, 26, 42 

Judaism, 5, 13, 17, 40, 86, 102, 132, 
133 . 147 . 154. 157. 162, 163, 165, 

178, 186, 198, 199, 204, 224, 225, 

246, 247, 251, 255, 256, 278, 283, 

285, 286, 341, 381 

Judges, 89, 170 
Judges, book of, 81 
Judith, book of, 222 
Julian, Emperor, 46 
Julius Caesar, 211, 212, 258 

Karo, Joseph, 312 
Keith-Roach, E., 375 
Khanuka, 228 
Kimchi, David, 311 
Knights Hospitallers, 54 
Knights of St. John, 47, 54 
Knights Templar, 52, 54 
Knossos, 87 
Koran, 86, 345 

Ladino, 317 
Ladder of Tyre, 26 
Lamentations, book of, 352 
Languages of Jews, 309 
Lateran Councils, 19, 287 
Latin language and culture, 216, 130 
Latin kingdom, 53, 56, 57 
Law of Moses, 136, 150, 193, 284 
Laws, 151 

Lawrence, Thos. E., 63, 64, 357 
League of Nations, 65, 359, 368, 372, 
402 

Lebanon, Mt., 24 

Leontopolis, 202, 265, 268 

Lessing, G. E., 400 

Levi, tribe, 8, 169, 172, 177, 204 

Levi, H., 402 

Levita, E., 311 


— 418 — 





Index 






Levites, 5, 14, 40, 80, 136, 145, 148, 
167, 171, 172, 175, 176, 178, 206 
Literature, 118, 134 
London, 288 
Lord’s Supper, 247 
Lost tribes, 81, 101 

Maccabaeus, Judas, 43, 201, 203 
Maccabee, Jonathan, 202 
Maccabee, Simon, 202, 204 
Maccabees, 12, 40, 45, 90, 105, 148, 
155, 189, 196, 201, 202, 204, 205, 
210, 215, 224, 228, 229, 235, 258, 
263 

Maccabees, books of, 202, 222 
MacDonald, Ramsay, 370, 371 
Mack, J. W., 338 
Madeba map, 46 

Magnes, Chancellor Judah L., 334, 
337 > 379 

Maimonides, 1, 294, 310 
Malachi, book of, 4, 128, 143, 193 
Malta, 54 
Manasseh, 108 
Mann, Rabbi, Louis L., 402 
Mariamne, 14, 212, 215 
Marranos, 298, 299, 302, 308 
Masada, 267, 276 

Massacres of Jews, 97, 292, 293, 297 

Massacres of Jews by crusaders, 52, 58 

MacMahon, Sir H., 64, 356 

Mandates, 65 

Mazdaism, 153 

Mecca, 47, 84, 346, 374 

Megiddo (Armageddon), 30, 64 

Melchizedek, 168 

Mendelssohn, Moses, 312 

“ Merchant of Venice,” 304 

Merneptah, 78 

Mesopotamia, 20, 23, 115 

Messianic hope, 206, 263, 264, 287, 

305. 308, 393 

Michelson, A. A., 395 
Migration, 11, 77, 78, 85 
Mikado, 184 

Minerals of Palestine, 32, 33 

Miracle, 82, 177 

Mishna, 274, 285, 286 

Missions to Jews, 398 

Mixed stock (see Racial mixtures) 

Moab, 137, 218, 234 

Moabite Stone, 37 


Modern, 13 

Mohammed, 47, 345, 351 
Monotheism, 151, 193, 195, 224, 231, 
266 

Montefiore, Sir Moses, 320, 351 
Moors, 19, 295, 300, 301, 302 
Moses, 79, 80, 82, 85, 167, 169, 173, 
194, 244, 247, 253, 254, 284 
Moses, Laws of (see Laws of Moses) 
Moslem, Moslems, 7, 47, 67, 129, 292, 
344 , 355 

“ Mosque of Omar ” (see Dome of the 
Rock) 

Mountains of Palestine, 29, 30 
Mussolini, Benito, 6, 129, 130 
Mustapha Kemal Pasha, 348, 374 

Nabateans, 13, 161, 189 
Nablous, 41, 67, 192, 194, 205 
Names changed, 7, 305 
Napoleon Bonaparte, 62 
Nazareth, 215, 236, 238 
Nazarenes, 42, 252, 253 
Nebuchadrezzar (Nebuchadnezzar), 
hi, 113, 135, 222 
Negeb, 25, 120 
Negro Jews, 313 

Nehemiah, 1, 4, 8 , 40, 90, 132, 136, 
138, 139 , MO, J 42 , 144 , 154 , 156, 
216, 219 

Nehemiah, book of, 122, 134, 135, 
193, 216 

Nehemiah, Journal of, 4 

Nero, Emperor, 45, 266, 268, 269, 281 

Nethinim, 172 

New Testament, 14, 16, 86, 285 
Nineveh, 234 
Normans, 82 
Nubia, 11 

Old Testament, 7, 72, 134, 238, 315 
Oliphant, Lawrence, 320 
Omar, caliph, 47, 48 
Onias III, n 7 > 200, 202, 230 
Orthodox Jews, 386, 390, 391, 394 

Pale, Jewish, 159, 307 
Palestine, 16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 62, 65, 
80, 83, 84, 88, 91, 97. 103 * 

104, 114, 119, 124, 129, 132, 166, 
235, 282, 314, 356, 403 
Palestine, cities of, 65, 66 


— 419 






Index 


Palestine, history, 38 
Palestine, population, 34, 41, 325, 344 
Palestine, products and resources, 31, 
33 > 35 , 377 

Palestine, races, 71, 74, 75, 148 
Palestine, religious interest of, 68 
Palestine, subjugations of, 38 
Palestine, travel to, 69 
Papyri, 116 
Parthians, 45 
Passfield, Lord, 370 
Passover, 17, 269, 391 
Patois in Judah, 5 

Paul, 16, 187, 188, 237, 246, 251, 
254 , 398 
Pedigrees, 13 
Pella, 269, 278 
Pentateuch, 150, 193 
Perea, 41, 42 
Pericles, 7 

Persecution of Jews, 2, 7, 17, 18, 19, 
200, 279, 297, 299, 300, 307, 396, 
397 , 404 

Persia, 3, 4, n, 47, 115, 127, 139, 
141, 153, 157, 190, 191, 196, 197, 

234 

Petra, 161, 189 

Pharisees, 16, 40, 205, 214, 227, 229, 
234, 239, 245, 264, 274 
Philistia, Philistines, 26, 87, 88, 89, 
91, 98, 106, 107, 120, 126 
Philo, 117, 265, 309, 311 
Pilate, 262 

Pilgrims, 50, 122, 126, 153, 167 
Pius IX, Pope, 306 
Pogroms, 307, 392 
Poland, 397, 398 
Pompedita, 20 

Pompey, 13, 41, 43, 210, 211, 258 
Pope, 51 

Prejudice against Jews, 20 
Priest Code, 5, 119, 145, 148, 150, 
174, 177, 178, 195, 217 
Priests, Priesthood, 16, 40, 83, 138, 

145, 154, 155, 162, 163, 166, 169, 

172, 173, 176, 177, 178, 185, 186, 

190, 194, 195, 202, 206, 210, 227, 

229, 260 

Prince Judah, Rabbi, 282 
Procurators, 44, 260, 264, 267 
Prophets, 15, 39, 94, 102, 121, 160, 
162, 193, 247 


Proselytes, 162, 231, 247 
Psalms, 4, 9, 120, 128, 190, 195, 208, 
217 

Psalms of Solomon, 222 
Ptolemy I. Soter, 199 
Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, 12, 220 
Ptolemy III. Euergetes, 199 
Purim, 196, 228 

Rabbinic schools, 209 
Rabbis, 261, 281, 283, 311 
Race continuity, 6 

Race mixtures, 2, 6, 9, 20, 77, 82, 83, 
84, 94, 99, 106, no, 119, 139, 143, 
156, 160, 178, 184, 226, 383, 384 
Racial traits, 383, 385 
Railroads in Palestine, 25, 29, 37, 63 
Ramses III, 88 
Rashi, 310 

Reform Judaism, 390, 392 
Rehoboam, 98, 100 
Relics of saints, 61 
Remnant in Palestine, 127 
“ Return ” to Palestine, 3, 135, 164, 
3 i 5 , 316 

Reuchlin, Johann, 312 
Rhodes, 54 

Richard, Coeur de Lion, 57, 58, 303 
Roads in Palestine, 27, 35, 36, 43 
Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 68 
Roman Catholic church, 51, 61, 130, 
2 47> 295, 390 

Roman empire, government, 6, 12, 13, 
14, 16, 17, 18, 26, 35, 41, 42, 43, 
46, 86, 99, 129, 148, 157, 210, 203, 
204, 209, 212, 213, 235, 236, 238, 
239, 256, 258, 261, 263, 264, 266, 
268, 270, 281, 288, 348 
Roman emperors, 262 
Rome, Jews in, 305 
Rosenwald, Julius, 1 
Rosh ha-Shanah, 391 
Rothschild, Baron, 320, 322, 325 
Russia, Jews in, 306, 307, 322 
Ruth, book of, 218, 234 

Sabbath, 119, 143, 150, 152, 164, 
196, 201, 208, 280, 287, 352, 392 
Sacrifice, 167 

Sadducees, 40, 206, 207, 214, 227, 234 
Safed, 18, 20, 273, 278, 314, 366 
Saladin, 56, 58, 180, 310, 348 


— 420 — 





Index 


Samaria, 26, 97, 99, 106, 192, 213, 
224, 282 

Samaritans, 9, 41, 42, 67, 103, 119, 
I 35 > Mi. 150, 192, 193 , 194 , 196, 
197, 199, 204, 224, 225, 265, 291, 

301, 346 

Samson, 89 

Samuel-Kings, books of, 118, 137, 
138, 218 

Samuel, Sir Herbert, 65, 324, 338, 359, 
375 

Sanhedrin, 40, 209, 229, 236, 273, 
274 

Sanballat, 142 
Sargon II, 100, 101, 183 
Saul, 89 

Saul, apostle (see Paul) 

Scribes, 16, 40, 145, 196, 207, 284 
Scripture, 4, 12, 161, 185, 196, 220, 
242, 252, 390 

Semites, 72, 77, 84, 88, 166, 180, 

346 

Sennacherib, 107 
Sepphoris, 268, 278, 283, 314 
Septuagint, 12, 117, 220, 265 
Sevres, treaty of, 64 
Shalmaneser IV, 100 
Shaw, Sir W., 366, 370 
Shechem, 82 
Shema, 391 
Shephela, 26 
Sheshbazzar, 122 
Shiloh, 170, 171 
Shishak, 98 

Shishak Inscription, 37 

Shulchan Aruch, 312, 323, 391, 393 

“ Shylock,” 397 

Sibylline Oracles, 263 

Siloam Inscription, 37 

Silver, Rabbi A. H., 403 

Sinai, Mt., 172, 284, 356 

Sirach, 1 

Slaughter of Jews, 272, 273, 276 
Slaves, 90, hi, 293 
Smith, Sir George Adam, 98 
Smith, Professor W. R., 180 
Sonenfeld, Chief Rabbi, 373 
Sokolow, N., 340 

Solomon, 2, 38, 91, 95, 97, 99, 214, 
272, 35i # 

Spain, Jews in, 19, 50, 294, 296 
Spinoza, Baruch, 1, 312, 395 


Stephen, 16, 251, 253 
St. John, Knights of (see Knights of 
St. John) 

Straus, Nathan, 1, 340, 395 
Suez Canal, 355, 369 
Suleman, sultan, 62 
Sura, 20, 333 
Susa, 140 

Synagogue, 208, 237, 243, 265, 275, 
280, 318, 353, 393, 401 
Syria, 11, 13, 25, 43, 65, 75, 98, 198, 
199, 200, 201 

Tabor, Mt., 29 
Tacitus, 272 

Talmud, 86, 179, 188, 284, 285, 391, 
393 

Tamerlane, 61, 289 
Tel-Aviv, 328, 360, 366 
Tell el-Amarna, 37, 117 
Temple, the, 3, 14, 18, 42, 45, 91, 112, 
123, 126, 127, 137, 139, 141, 143, 

147, 152, 154, 161, 163, 174, 175, 

I9<>> 193, 195. 200, 201, 203, 206, 

208, 211, 214, 226, 227, 229, 239, 

243, 252, 260, 261, 268, 269, 271, 

350 

Testimonies of the Twelve Patriarchs, 
263 

Theudas, 264 

Tiberias, 18, 20, 273, 278, 283, 285, 
3 M 

Tiglath Pileser, 100 
Titus, Emperor, 18, 42, 45, 269, 270, 
27i> 275, 314 
Tobit, book of, 222 
Toleration, acts of, 307 
Torah, 14, 145, 147, 163, 194, 195, 
205, 228, 239, 244, 246, 273, 274, 
287, 404 

Tours, battle of, 296 
Trajan, Emperor, 277 
Tribes, 81, 85, 95, 96, 137, 186, 187, 
282 

Turkey, Turks, 7, 50, 55, 61, 62, 64, 
316, 3 2 7 > 344 . 349 . 353 

Unitarianism, 313, 394 

University, Hebrew, 331, 332, 333, 379 

Usury, 291, 292 

Urban II, pope, 51 

“ Urim and Thummim,” 173 


421 — 





Index 




▼ VWW V ■y - T'T-T-y ^ T - T-y T T ^ 

Venice, 288, 305 

Vespasian, Emperor, 18, 45, 268, 269 
Virgil, 181 

Wailing Wall, 65, 214, 317, 350, 351, 
353, 354, 365, 366, 372 
Walls, city, 136, 140, 141, 142, 211, 
213, 270 

“ Wandering Jew,” 147 
Warburg, Felix M., 31, 32, 340, 371 
Water Supply, 31, 340, 371 
Weizmann, Chaim, 332, 340, 371, 
372 

“ White Paper,” 370, 371, 372 
William II, kaiser, 63 
Wisdom of Solomon, book of, 219 
Wise, Rabbi Stephen S., 338, 402 
World War, 23 


Yahu, Ya’u, n, 116, 117, 154 
Yiddish, 131, 317, 335 

Zadok, 172 
Zealots, 17, 263 

Zechariah, book of, 3, 9, 116, 125, 134, 
138, 140 

Zechariah II, book of, 221 
Zedekiah, king, 113, 123 
Zephaniah, book of, 221 
Zerubbabel, 3, 42, 123, 124, 126, 127, 
128, 135, 136, 142, 155, 214 
Zion, section of Jerusalem, 15, 125, 
350, 402 

Zionism, 21, 23, 65, 321, 326, 336, 

349, 350, 370, 375, 377, 395 
Zionist congresses, 339 
Zoroaster, 153, 206, 234 


$ 


— 422 — 










































































